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Information about Zero Emission

Zero emission refers to an engine, motor, or other energy source, that emits no waste products that pollutes the environment or disrupts the climate.

Zero emission engines

Vehicles and other mobile machinery used for transport (over land, sea, air, rail) and for other uses (agricultural, mobile power generation, ...) contribute heavily to global warming/pollution, and thus zero emission engines are being actively researched. These technologies almost in all cases include an electric engine powered by an additional energy source compact enough to be installed in the vehicle. These energy sources vary from hydrogen fuel cells, batteries, Flywheel energy storage devices, ...

In some cases, (e.g. compressed air engines), the engine may also be mechanical. This mechanical engine is then powered by an additional, passive energy source as compressed air, or a combustible non-polluting gas (e.g. hydrogen).

As the above engines can be used in all vehicles, everything can altered; from cars to boats as well as propeller airplanes. For boats besides the above engines mentioned, nuclear power plants and technology used commonly to power homes/industry can be used as well (e.g. PV solar panels).

Zero emission energy production

Current technology for power plants

Renewable energy sources, including solar power, wind power, tidal power and hydroelectric power. are often referred to as zero emission power, since their operation produce very few, or zero, emissions. On the other hand, the construction of such plants may involve emissions if the materials are created or assembled using equipment that produces emissions. For example, the production of high purity silicon for photovoltaic cells consumes large quantities of carbon, contributing to CO2 emissions, and this is also true for the production of steel and concrete for wind turbines and hydroelectric dams.

Similarly, Nuclear power plants do not emit significant amounts of pollutants during their operation, but the extraction of Uranium ore and construction of waste repositories usually involves machinery powered by gasoline. The construction of the plant itself also requires materials similar to those for renewable energy sources, tho because of nuclear powerplants large output per station, less so per amount of energy produced. All in all, emissions due to the operation, fuel production and waste management from nuclear powerplants are similar in magnitude to those of the renewables. However, though nuclear powerplants do not emit large amounts of pollution during normal operation, they do produce large quantities of radioactive waste, which has to be stored for several centuries before it's radioactivity has decreased to that of the uranium ore ( see Nuclear waste ). There is also concern that flawed designs or operation can lead to nuclear accidents, emitting radioactive pollutants, as happened during the Chernobyl disaster.

Potential future technologies

Many technological improvements have been suggested to reduce emissions from various energy sources. Carbon dioxide could be captured from fossil plants and stored underground rather than released into the atmosphere ( a technology known as carbon capture and storage ). Improved efficiency for solar cells, or cells made from novel materials, could offset the emissions associated with silicon production. New reactor technology could enable nuclear reactors to produce orders of magnitude more energy without increased emissions, and recycled or new materials could reduce the emissions associated with construction of windturbines and hydroelectric dams. Additionally, many new energy sources with low emissions are being researched, including among others: Wave power, Nuclear fusion and Bio fuel.

A concept like vegetable oil economy produces emissions; however, the only emissions are things that were first taken out of the atmosphere when the plants were growing. So there is no net emission.

See also

References

  • Dixon, Lloyd; Isaac Porche, Jonathan Kulick (2002). Driving Emissions to Zero: Are the Benefits of California's Zero Emission Vehicle Program Worth the Costs?. RAND Corporation. ISBN 0-8330-3212-7. 

External Links

An engine is something that produces an output effect from a given input. The origin of engineering however, came from the design, building and working of (military "engines") because before such devices came to be employed in battles there were very few mechanical devices used.
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Types of motors include:
  • Electric motor, a machine that converts electricity into a mechanical motion
  • Thermodynamic motor or heat engine, a machine that converts heat into mechanical motion
  • Molecular motors, the essential agents of movement in living organisms

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electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. The reverse process, that of converting mechanical energy into electrical energy, is accomplished by a generator or dynamo.
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fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device. It produces electricity from external supplies of fuel (on the anode side) and oxidant (on the cathode side). These react in the presence of an electrolyte.
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battery is a device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells, which store chemical energy and make it available in an electrical form. There are many types of electrochemical cells, including galvanic cells, electrolytic cells, fuel cells, flow cells, and voltaic cells.
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Flywheel Energy Storage (FES) works by accelerating a rotor (flywheel) to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy. The energy is converted back by slowing down the flywheel.
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Compressed air may refer to:
  • Pneumatics, the use of pressurized gases to do work
  • Breathing gas, often used in scuba diving, also to inflate buoyancy devices
  • Compressed air can also be used for refrigeration using a vortex tube
  • "Canned air" or gas duster.

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1, −1
(amphoteric oxide)
Electronegativity 2.20 (Pauling scale) More

Atomic radius 25 pm
Atomic radius (calc.) 53 pm
Covalent radius 37 pm
Van der Waals radius 120 pm
Miscellaneous

Thermal conductivity (300 K) 180.
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Solar energy is energy from the sun. It supports life on Earth and drives the Earth's weather. Solar energy predominantly arrives in the form of infrared, visible and ultraviolet light, and is either returned back to space or is absorbed.
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Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into more useful forms, such as electricity, using wind turbines. At the end of 2006, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 73.
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    Tidal energy, sometimes called tidal power, is a form of hydropower that exploits the movement of water caused by tidal currents or the rise and fall in sea levels due to the tides.
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    Hydroelectricity is electricity produced by hydropower. Hydroelectricity now supplies about 715,000 MWe or 19% of world electricity (16% in 2003), accounting for over 63% of the total electricity from renewables in 2005.
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    Nuclear power is a type of nuclear technology involving the controlled use of nuclear fission to release energy for work including propulsion, heat, and the generation of electricity.
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    Radioactive wastes are waste types containing radioactive chemical elements that do not have a practical purpose. They are sometimes the products of a nuclear processes, such as nuclear fission.
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    reactor accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the worst in history, resulting in a severe nuclear meltdown. On 26 April 1986 at 01:23:40 a.m. reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant located in the former Soviet Union near Pripyat in Ukraine exploded.
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    Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an approach to mitigating global warming by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from large point sources such as power plants and subsequently storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
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    The fast breeder or fast breeder reactor (FBR) is a fast neutron reactor designed to breed fuel by producing more fissile material than it consumes. The FBR is one possible type of breeder reactor.
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      Wave power refers to the energy of ocean surface waves and the capture of that energy to do useful work - including electricity generation, desalination, and the pumping of water (into reservoirs). Wave power is a form of renewable energy.
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      nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple atomic particles join together to form a heavier nucleus. It is accompanied by the release or absorption of energy. Iron and nickel nuclei have the largest binding energies per nucleon of all nuclei and therefore are the most stable.
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      Renewable energy
      • Biofuels
      • Biomass
      • Geothermal power
      • Hydro power
      • Solar power
      • Tidal power
      • Wave power
      • Wind power
      Biofuel (also called agrofuel[1]
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      Vegetable oil economy is the potential of vegetable oil to replace fossil fuels in the economy and how it compares to other potential replacements. Vegetable oils are the basis of biodiesel, which can be used like conventional diesel.
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      An air engine or air motor is a device for converting potential energy from compressed air into kinetic energy to drive other machines. As in a steam engine, expansion of externally supplied pressurized gas performs work against one or more pistons or rotors to move wheels
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      zero-emissions vehicle, or ZEV will produce no emissions or pollution from the vehicle when stationary or operating. Emissions of concern include particulates (soot), hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and various oxides of nitrogen.
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      Rand may refer to a number of places, people, organizations, and acronyms.

      Places named Rand include:
      • Rand, New South Wales, a small town in Australia
      • Rand, Lincolnshire, a small village in Lincolnshire, England

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