The Nexus of Energy, Carbon and Water

Abstract

All living species including the human body consist mainly of carbon and water, or-to be more precise-they consist of hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds that are dominated by the elements carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. So, it is not surprising that the carbon and water cycles are of special importance for mankind. Carbon and water in the form of food and beverage have two very different functions: they supply humans with energy and in addition they are the basic building blocks of the body. Stable, closed loops of water and carbon on our planet guaranteed our survival since the beginning of mankind.In the modern world, industrial processes, and especially the conventional methods of energy production, require a large amount of carbon and water and destroy the natural cycles. To restore the stable cycles, we need a different energy system. This chapter will introduce you to the extraordinary magnitude of the world energy problem and explain its link to the anthropogenic climate change, which turns out to be a game changer for the future of our human society. The restoration of the carbon and water cycles will be essential for our survival. New concepts and methods to preserve and provide freshwater and to reverse desertification and climate change are essential to fight drought and hunger of future generations. Seawater desalination and pyrolysis may be key technologies to achieve that. The Challenge of the World Energy SupplyMany people discuss solutions to the energy problem, but often they completely underestimate the order of magnitude of the problem and solutions are offered that nicely work at small scale but not at global scale. The average global energy usage per second is about 18,000 GW, which corresponds to the electrical output of about 18,000 nuclear power plants (see Box 2.1) [1, 2].The energy consumption per capita is very different for different countries, e.g. it is 9.9 kW/person in the US, 5.5 kW/person in Germany, and 0.9 kW/person in Africa. The world average is 18; 000 GW=7:3 billion people ¼ 2:5 kW for each human being today. As population increases and in addition also energy consumption per capita increases, energy needs will increase rapidly in future, especially in developing countries where the consumption per capita is very low today. Neglecting this rising energy need per person, and just taking the population rise into account, an increase to 25,000 GW until 2050 is estimated. The claim, that the energy consumption of the western world stays basically constant since decades is partially misleading, as a large fraction of the industrial production of goods for Western countries has been moved to eastern countries, especially to China. To account for the total energy footprint of a society, the energy footprint of imported goods must be assigned to the consumer and not to the producer to get the picture right.There are three basic types of energy production: nuclear, fossil and renewable. An energy transition must consider not only the additional 7000 GW that must be installed in ...