Emission control and global warming have become major concerns across the globe in the past few years. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent for research on global warming. However, scientists have discovered a new gas that can reduce the carbon emissions across the world to a great extent. Currently, out of the total electricity generated across the world, 20 per cent is generated using natural gas.
Though, natural gas is a cleaner source of energy compared to coal, the turbines that are used to generate electricity using natural gas emit lot of carbon, which are stated to be major cause of greenhouse effect leading to global warming.
Nevertheless, few companies have come up with technologies that produce zero carbon emission natural gas. Carbon dioxide is the end product after combustion of any fossil fuel. Because carbon is a part of their molecular structure, having a ‘zero-emission’ fuel is practically impossible.
But, scientists are working on a technology that can pressurise carbon dioxide released after burning of natural gas in presence of heat converting it into super critical carbon dioxide, which would be used as running fluid for the turbines used to generate electricity. The process would reduce carbon emissions to an absolute zero, making the resulting power the cleanest form of energy.
The process is also more efficient and cost effective as compared to the conventional power plants. Its reliability on a large scale however, is yet to be tested. An experimental power plant using the technology is being run by a US-based company called Net Power.
The company has claimed that their experiment has yielded positive research so far. But their research till now has only been able to reduce carbon footprints only in the field of electricity generation. There are still many areas left where the emissions need to be cut drastically to conserve ecology.
