Greenhouse effects of peat production and use compared with coal, oil, natural gas and wood

摘要

This paper examines the effects of greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) arising from certain chains of peat production and use and compares them with the corresponding effects due to the chains of energy production and use for coal, oil, natural gas and wood. In order to estimate the greenhouse effects of the chains of peat production and use, the factors studied were the initial state of the peat bog together with the instantaneous and cumulative greenhouse effects associated with the production and fuming of peat as well as subsequent use of the production area. The burning of peat, like other fuels, brings about a strong instantaneous green-house effect which diminishes in accordance with the extent to which the greenhouse gases generated by combustion are removed from the atmosphere. Utilizing a forest-drained bog or cultivated peatland or peat production purposes as well as afforestation, turning a production area back into a bog or creating a lake may compensate for part of the greenhouse effect caused by burning peat. In the short term the smallest cumulative green-house effect is caused by the chain of natural gas production and use. At the hundred year mark the chains of natural gas and wood production and use lead to a greenhouse effect of equal size. The short-term cumulative greenhouse effect brought about by the chain of peat production and use is equal in size to that associated with coal and oil, amounting to about 1.5 times the size of the cumulative greenhouse effect produced by wood and natural gas. In the long term the cumulative greenhouse effects of wood and, in certain chains under examination, of peat too start to diminish, while those brought about by the chains of coal, oil and natural gas production and use continue to increase