Introduction

The relationship between the global surface temperature of the Earth and the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere was discovered by Arrhenius in 1896 (Arrhenius, Dublin Philos Mag J Sci 41(251):237–276, 1896). CO2 and other gases such as CH4 produced from burning fossil fuels trap thermal radiation from the Sun in the Earth’s atmosphere and lead to an increase in the Earth’s surface temperature by the greenhouse effect. Following the industrial revolution at the turn of the twentiethth century, the world began to consume fossil fuels for energy at breakneck pace for applications ranging from energy production to transportation to water supply. The availability of these services is necessary to maintain and improve the standard of life to which the developed world has grown accustomed. However, as a result of the rapid combustion of fossil fuels, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by almost 30% compared to the pre-industrial times, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Pachauri et al., Climate change 2014: Synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, 2014) has reported that the “warming of the climate system is unequivocal” and “most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” This global warming is projected to cause an increase in sea levels caused by melting of the polar ice caps as well as increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Although renewable energy is expected to account for an increasing amount of the energy supply in the future, fossil fuels will remain the dominant energy source for at least the next 25 years. As a result, addressing carbon emissions from power plants has become an active area of research.