CO2 to produce electricity

[vicmel]

Can anyone do the sums to estimate (based on our present supply regime) how much CO2 is produced per KWH of electrical power.

[jake-the-peg]

Defra says 430g per Kwhr in the UK on average.

Remembering that nuclear is run as much as possible all the time I would expect that figure to be slightly higher at peak times and slightly lower off-peak

http://www.climatecare.org/living/calculator_i nfo/index.cfm;jsessionid=0c30c030a89f7175f3cf? content_id=1C0A5CE9-C0B4-2C1B-2BFE310E016F4206 &CFID=1100385&CFTOKEN=fca08fac578d52-0A9E023E- 1143-DB05-0797AC18E5C455EF&jsessionid=0c30c030 a89f7175f3cf

[rja211077]

just to agree with that, i do this sort of thing for my job and can confirm that 430 g/kWh is the official government factor based on our current fuel mix and (presumably) a typical annual generation profile.

[buildersmate]

I found the following useful looking data at this website
http://www.worldcoal.org/pages/content/index.a sp?PageID=190
I copied the source reference in case anyone else wanted a look.

A 600 MWe coal-fired power station operating at 38% efficiency and 75% overall availability will consume approximately:
- Bituminous coal (CV 6000 kcal/kg NAR*): 1.5 Mt/annum
- Brown coal (CV 2250 kcal/kg NAR*): 4.0 Mt/annum

So using bituminous coal (which is very nearly all carbon, not impure), a 600MW PS uses 2.0Million tonnes if it worked flat out all year, or 228 tonnes per hour. This is equivalent to 0.38kg of Carbon per kWh.

The bit I can't do is the addition bit for the molecular weight of CO2 versus pure carbon - A level Chemistry is too rusty!

I think the multiplier is 3.7, so 1.40 kg of CO2 per kWh.

Any other offers?

[buildersmate]

The above answers turned up whilst I was working this out. The first one is definitely downrated for the proportion of our energy coming from nuclear - which produces no CO2.