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Tesla founder Elon Musk recently lifted a car for a tech. He said he would pay $ 100 million to reward the company with the best carbon capture technology. In fact, carbon capture technology has been around since the 1970s, but why hasn’t it been widely used? And why is it now being watched by the world?
The current concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 415 ppm per million, the highest level in human history, and is increasing every year. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made it clear that emission reductions are no longer sufficient and that the world must actively remove carbon dioxide that already exists in the atmosphere. This process is often referred to as “negative emissions”. From then on, the world began to pay attention to carbon capture technology.
The simplest carbon capture technology is planting trees, but the problem is that planting trees is not a panacea. Removing carbon from the atmosphere is considered a more realistic and faster approach. Musk also thinks the same. He said: “Trees are part of the solution, but they require a lot of fresh water and soil. In 10 to 20 years, we may need large-scale industries.”
It refers to carbon capture and storage technology (CCUS). According to the International Energy Agency (International Energy Agency), there are currently 21 large-scale commercial CCUS projects around the world to remove carbon dioxide from carbon dioxide emitted by factories.
According to a CNBC report, the first of these was established in 1972, primarily to increase oil recovery and pump carbon dioxide into oil fields, which can help oil companies get more oil out of the ground. It wasn’t until the 1980s that people studied carbon capture technology to mitigate climate change, but still, this technology is still lacking.
Until the last few years, carbon capture and storage technology seemed to have jumped onto the stage. Now everyone is concerned with capturing carbon directly from the air instead of capturing carbon from factory smokestacks. It’s called direct air capture (DAC), which stands for Any mechanical system that captures carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Current DAC plants use liquid solvents or solid adsorbents to separate carbon dioxide from other gases. Once the capture agent is saturated, heat is applied to release the collected carbon dioxide and the capture agent can be reused. The released carbon dioxide can be used or stored underground. There are currently 15 direct air capture plants in Europe, the United States and Canada.
But the problem is that it is a very expensive technology. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is only 0.04%. The lower the concentration, the higher the cost of capture. Mainly it still consumes energy. DAC machines need a lot of electricity because they have to work with a lot of air. A study in Nature Communications found that direct air capture machines can consume a quarter of the world’s energy by 2100.
Scientists, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are developing systems that can reduce energy consumption. Why do scientists think that this type of technology is necessary even if it is expensive? The reason is that in the past, humans released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but now they are surprised that the situation is dire, so they think that carbon dioxide should also be considered as a waste management problem.
But like all waste management methods, no matter how cheap carbon capture technology is, it comes at a cost. Scientists believe that the best way is to put a price on carbon. If the world is unwilling to put a price on carbon, even the best carbon capture technology is useless.
Recently, “Nature Communications” published an American study that found that the use of DAC technology can slow the pace of global warming. DAC technology is also receiving increasing support from large companies, for example Microsoft included this technology in its carbon reduction plan last year. “The Economist” reported that by 2030, the potential global market value of DAC technology may reach US $ 100 billion. DAC in the United States can generate at least 300,000 new jobs.
However, the scientist said, “Although the rate of removal from the natural carbon removal process may stabilize as available land is depleted, the amount of carbon removal through DAC may increase over time.” Musk’s observations also reflect the maturity of private companies. in climate change and investment. But even if we had the most advanced and cheapest carbon storage and replacement technology, if we did not have natural forests, I cannot imagine what the Earth would be like with big machines everywhere.
(Source of the first image: Flickr / Maxim Mogilevskiy CC By 2.0)
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