The Earth’s atmosphere has hit a record-high level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide as our modern society burns fossil fuels like coal and oil, with 90% of the increase coming since the 1970s.
That carbon dioxide, or CO2, acts as a blanket in the atmosphere, keeping the heat in, causing the planet to warm, and some experts say we have reached a tipping point where no matter how much we cut back on emissions, the planet will keep warming to dangerous levels.
Now, the Biden administration is spending heavily on a long-desired technology to essentially vacuum up excess CO2 from the air. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides billions of dollars to companies that perform carbon capture, sometimes called carbon sequestration.
Carbon capture systems work by filtering outside air through a special matrix that absorbs and concentrates the CO2 and then stores it back underground where it originally came from.
In addition to being stored in rock formations where it doesn’t affect the atmosphere, the captured CO2 can be injected into oil and gas fields to extend their life. This configuration would require a system of pipelines because most CO2 today is captured from power plants but injection sites may not be nearby. Carbon can also be stored and used to make sustainable fuels.
Carbon capture requires energy to run, and backers say using solar or wind to power the collectors would make them carbon-negative.
The filter media is extruded ceramic. It is coated with a material that absorbs CO2 from the ambient air.
Carbon capture systems could be built anywhere there’s electricity because they capture and treat ambient air.
A new “Global Thermostat” plant near Denver can capture about 1,000 tons of CO2 a year, or the equivalent emissions of 217 passenger cars. The plant is a pilot project demonstrating that the technology can work on a large scale, but experts say far more and bigger plants are necessary to make a real difference.
Because the plant operates on a small scale compared to the planet, the amount of carbon removed is negligible. Experts say large numbers of similar facilities would need to be built globally in order to capture enough carbon to make a difference on a planetary scale.
Experts caution that such carbon capture efforts are by no means a “get out jail free” card and that rapidly shifting to a zero carbon energy system is still critically important. But such systems could keep overall CO2 levels from peaking even higher than predicted and potentially aid in avoiding the absolute worst-case scenarios. Time, they say, is of the essence and every little bit helps.
SOURCES Global Thermostat; cClimeworks
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