Short Bytes: CO2 is the major cause of climate change and global warming. As of now, sustainable development is just in speeches and when an immediate solution was seeming unlikely, Carbon Engineering came up with a technology that would reduce and recycle the CO2 present in the atmosphere instantaneously. Read to know more.
The rate of climate change today, and its effects on the planet’s future, incite some of the strongest opinions and anxiety among the people. While the world acknowledges it, yet no one wants to share the responsibility. No wonder Elon Musk calls this as humanity’s dumbest experiment.
Carbon emission is the biggest contributor to the increase in global temperatures worldwide, and it will continue to do so until an immediate solution is panned out. Planting trees can do the trick, but it would require vast amounts of fertile land to absorb even a small volume of CO2. But what if we could build something that does the same as forests- suck CO2 out of the atmosphere?
Carbon Engineering, a company sponsored by Bill gates, is working on technologies to take CO2 directly out of the atmosphere. It sounds amazing but not easy as CO2 represents just one molecule out of 2500 molecules in the air.
Related: World’s First ‘Clean’ Coal Power Plant Has Arrived, Uses Carbon Capture and Storage
Carbon Engineering has built the prototype contactor that converts 100 kilos of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere every day into harmless carbonates. Now just imagine the extent of their full-scale system.
At its maximum capacity, the full-scale system by the Carbon Engineering team is expected to capture the emissions from 300,000 cars every year. Air capture doesn’t require any exotic technology and can be scaled in size and installed anywhere on the Earth (since CO2 is present everywhere) depending on the economic and industrial needs of the place.
And, it doesn’t end here. The pure CO2 can be combined with H2 and form hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline and jet fuel, thus continuing the above process.
Air capture seems quite a promising technology, a solution that could provide sustainable development at a lower cost. The conventional cars are not going out anytime soon and nor the industries going to slow their pace, so air capture could be a game changer without affecting the development agenda of the countries.
See the video by Carbon Engineering to get better knowledge about the technology. Share your views in the comments below.
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