Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

hi, i'm currently working on an essay about the different methods of fireplaces, and their relations to CO2 emmisions. i know that electric fireplace is more eco-friendly than other methods of fireplaces, but it still not co2 free. because co2 is produced from the factories that generates electricity.
can anyone tell me whether the co2 can be collects in the factory and convert to fuel or not?
i read some articles about this, however, some of it said that we can't convert co2 to feul yet. so i am confused.
also, for the wood burning fireplace, approximatly how much co2 does it emiss for 1 hr of burning?
and how much co2 is produce for 1 KWh of electricity?

thanks a lot!!!

ps. if u have any helpful websites for these topics, please tell me too!

bhappy - As you point out, the source of generated CO2 is often many hundreds of miles away from the point of use of the energy. Even all electric vehicles will have to use electricity produced by fossil fuel plants in another location. While the vehicles won't emit much harmful by-product into the atmosphere where they are driven, the carbon dioxide (and many other pollutants) happen somewhere else. To use your example, the use of 1,000 electric fireplaces will see the CO2 generation happen in one of these plants. That at least allows us to potentially contain the large amount of the gas generated, efficiently scrub other emissions, and possibly recover the potential by-products for other uses. Much better than 1,000 fireplaces burning wood , probably inefficiently, and venting to the atmosphere.

CO2 as a fuel source would be like water (H2O) as a fuel source. We can process either material using yet more energy expenditure to separate the CO2 into carbon (a fuel) and oxygen, or electrolytically reduce water to hydrogen (a fuel) and oxygen. However it would take much more energy expenditure to do that. A kilowatt hour of processing will yield far less than a kilowatt of new fuel content. Nothing is free here.

I don't know the numbers, but you can probably easily search for CO2 output figures from coal or oil based power plants.

I think you have some interesting perspective for your essay, as you understand the continuum of energy and pollution. Everyone wants a 'greener' world, but everything we do has some compromise and must be balanced with other factors. Too many people think there are easy, obvious and simplistic answers to global environmental issues. It will take science interested students like you to help explain the real problems and work to provide solutions. Good luck.

Rick Marz

rmarz - you answers helped me a lot. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!