Water Consumption

Abstract

Generating electricity places stresses on our planet’s limited supply of fossil fuels while also creating pollution in the form of greenhouse gases and local air pollution, but many readers may not realize that current electrical generation plants also consume significant quantities of water that is placing stress on global freshwater resources. We have shown in previous chapters that producing electricity by integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) will reduce GHG emissions. In this chapter we show that coal-powered IGCC plants with CCS would also require approximately 39% less water than the current U.S. mix of electricity generation technologies.We also showthat the water required to produce hydrogen ismuch 20–25 times less than thewater required to produce gasoline.