News Release

INEEL creates a method to link energy use, greenhouse gases

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/Idaho National Laboratory

In a first step to understanding how to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gases on our environment, engineers have created a method to convert the numbers on an energy bill to the production of greenhouse gases.

Systems engineer David Shropshire's research into more accurately assessing the different, complex scenarios for reducing greenhouse gas production will be presented at this year's Third Annual Dixy Lee Ray Memorial Symposium in Washington, D.C. His work will be presented by colleague Karen Moore, mechanical engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, on the morning of August 30, 2000. The symposium is an international conference to discuss technologies to manage the carbon that human activities disperse to the environment.

"Greenhouse gas" refers to carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases that are thought to trap solar energy and cause changes to the world's environment. The gases are created through common industrial processes and also by using fossil fuel-based energy. Some energy production methods, such as hydroelectric and nuclear power, are "cleaner" than others and produce less or no greenhouse gases.

The level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is on the rise--higher levels are implicated in rising temperatures and changing weather worldwide. Two years ago, the INEEL began developing a method to convert simple energy use numbers (those you'd find on an electric bill) and other contributing factors into a more accurate picture of greenhouse gas production. In 1999, President Clinton issued an Executive Order requiring all federal facilities to reduce their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 2010.

In support of President Clinton's energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions goals, the Department of Energy's national laboratories are required to report their energy use each quarter. The gross energy usage is then converted into how much greenhouse gas was theoretically created to supply that energy. INEEL researchers think the current mathematic conversions don't paint the real picture.

"It's a fairly big effort to understand the calculations and how to bring emissions down to 1990 levels," says Shropshire. President Clinton's goals are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 30% of a 1990 baseline. In a related goal, the international Kyoto Accords also seek to reduce the production of greenhouse gases created by human activities.

Current methods for converting energy use to greenhouse gas emissions fail to account for how cleanly that energy was produced, as well as other details of the lab's energy use. Energy efficiency is affected by building design such as insulation, the energy efficiency of windows, peak energy usage hours, etc. Additionally, the local ecosystem may affect how long the gases stay in the atmosphere -- carbon dioxide can be consumed by surrounding plants, in essence preventing the gases from contributing to global climate change, according to Shropshire.

Shropshire and colleagues have been examining the life cycle of energy use and greenhouse gas creation at the INEEL, trying to understand where and how the energy was generated, how it was used at the institution, what other environmental gases were created either as byproducts or in other processes, and what environmental factors either mitigated or exacerbated its effect.

For example, the INEEL buys a large portion of its electricity from utilities that are hydropower-based. Therefore, a smaller amount of carbon is released into the atmosphere in the energy that INEEL uses, he says. But buying clean energy is just one issue in determining total greenhouse gas emissions. An institution's transportation fleet also directly contributes greenhouse gases.

Examining all potential contributors of greenhouse gas for an institution is part of "life cycle analysis". "We try to understand the full impacts of the energy we use. We also look forward and examine the twenty-year cumulative impact," says INEEL mechanical engineer Karen Moore.

Shropshire is developing a greenhouse gas emissions baseline model for INEEL by analyzing the impacts from various energy and facility operations. "We want to be a leader among the DOE labs -- to see how we can do better," he says. He notes that in dry years, there is less hydroelectric power available for INEEL to buy than in wet, so INEEL's greenhouse gas emissions go up during drought years.

"We're finding complexity on a small scale -- one national lab -- so when you try to generalize to all the labs, it gets very complicated," Shropshire says. "That's partly why it's been hard to come to an agreement on how to estimate emissions in a practical manner. There are so many issues to consider, including economic and scientific ones."

INEEL's Barry Short sees this early state of carbon management as an opportunity for the INEEL to take a leading role in the field. "We want this national laboratory to be the leader for greenhouse gas inventory methods," he says. Bringing Shropshire's work to the symposium will let other researchers critique and provide valuable feedback on the work's strengths and weaknesses. Short is the director of INEEL's Energy Efficiency and Natural Resources.

To begin analyzing the complex issue, Shropshire created a systems model that fits on a laptop computer and allows lab managers to examine the different, complex scenarios for reducing greenhouse gas production. The results of the model indicate that the large majority of greenhouse gases are produced via the normal facility operations of the lab such as lighting, heating and cooling of buildings and transportation. Shropshire also says that with current mitigation efforts, it will be difficult to meet the goals set forth by the president.

But there is more at stake than just taking stock of a company's or government agency's greenhouse gas emissions. "This is more than just an inventory," says Shropshire. "Potentially, it could have some economic value to the region. There is a new concept brewing -- a market for carbon allotments, or carbon trading. If you can't reduce your emissions down to the goal, you could buy someone else's ability to emit. Or others can grow crops that store carbon."

Since the Kyoto Accord, countries have been discussing ways to trade off on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As an example, he points out that farmers in Iowa are selling their carbon shares to a Canadian utility.

But Short says the potential value of carbon emission rights at this point is anybody's guess, although technologies that deal with managing the excess carbon in our atmosphere are already being developed. "The problem," he says, "is that if carbon trading is coming, who will decide what technologies to store carbon will be worth? The value of carbon credits needs to be determined."

In the same way that carbon credits are being discussed, sulfur emissions permits have already been developed and are in use by the U.S. energy industry. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments that define sulfur emissions paved the way for potential trading in other man-made atmospheric gases.

Before the trading can begin, however, a standard method of measuring the impact of human activities on the accumulation of greenhouse gases needs to be worked out. INEEL mechanical engineer Karen Moore says, "The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has a goal to create standards for measuring both the emissions and carbon sequestration" -- the storing of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. That standard method will require a way to accurately determine an inventory of greenhouse gas production, such as the initial work by Shropshire.

Although the effect of greenhouse gases on global climate change is still being debated by scientists, Moore says that doesn't prevent others from trying to do something about the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. "It's an engineering problem," she says. "The scientists will be debating the effects for a long time, but the engineers can do something about it now."

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Named in honor of the world-renowned conservationist and scientist, the Dixy Lee Ray Memorial Symposium examines technologies that could be applied to global climate change issues. It is sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute for Regulatory Science. This year it will be held August 29-31, 2000, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington D.C.

The INEEL is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to supporting the U.S. Department of Energy's missions in national security, environment, energy and science. The INEEL is operated for the DOE by Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC, in partnership with the Inland Northwest Research Alliance.

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Note to editors: David Shropshire can be contacted at 208 526-6800 or des@inel.gov. The URL for the Dixy Lee Ray Memorial Symposium is <http://www.nars.org/dlr_symposium_2000.html>
Media contact: Mary Beckman, 208 526-0061, beckmt@inel.gov.

Visit out website at http://www.inel.gov



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