Breathing Planet Earth: Analysis of Keeling’s Data on CO 2 and O 2 with Respiratory Quotient (RQ), Part II: Energy-Based Global RQ and CO 2 Budget

Kalyan Annamalai ()
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Kalyan Annamalai: J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3123, USA

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 8, 1-46

Abstract: For breathing humans, the respiratory quotient (RQ = CO 2 moles released/O 2 mols consumed) ranges from 0.7 to 1.0. In Part I, the literature on the RQ was reviewed and Keeling’s data on atmospheric CO 2 and O 2 concentrations (1991–2018) were used in the estimation of the global RQ as 0.47. A new interpretation of RQ Glob is provided in Part II by treating the planet as a “Hypothetical Biological system (HBS)”. The CO 2 and O 2 balance equations are adopted for estimating (i) energy-based RQ Glob(En) and (ii) the CO 2 distribution in GT/year and % of CO 2 captured by the atmosphere, land, and ocean. The key findings are as follows: (i) The RQ Glob(En) is estimated as 0.35 and is relatively constant from 1991 to 2020. The use of RQ Glob(En) enables the estimation of CO 2 added to the atmosphere from the knowledge of annual fossil fuel (FF) energy data; (ii) The RQ method for the CO 2 budget is validated by comparing the annual CO 2 distribution results with results from more detailed models; (iii) Explicit relations are presented for CO 2 sink in the atmosphere, land, and ocean biomasses, and storage in ocean water from the knowledge of curve fit constants of Keeling’s curves and the RQ of FF and biomasses; (iv) The rate of global average temperature rise (0.27 °C/decade) is predicted using RQ Glob,(En) and the annual energy release rate and compared with the literature data; and (v) Earth’s mass loss in GT and O 2 in the atmosphere are predicted by extrapolating the curve fit to the year 3700. The effect of RQ Glob and RQ FF on the econometry and policy issues is briefly discussed.

Keywords: respiratory quotient (RQ); fossil fuels; carbon budget; global RQ; Earth’s mass loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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