this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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Wouldn't it be more effective in terms of cost and GHG levels to replace coal plants with renewables?
Yes, you’re absolutely right. Carbon capture is a big waste of time and money.
That's what everybody said about solar / renewables in its infancy. We know we're going to need the technology, far better to start developing it now than when it's too late.
yeh this is a really promising technology and it's not as far as most people seem to think from being widely adoptable, there are some great projects underway
basically you grow a load of plants (generally the excess biomass from crops and maintained spaces) and burn them (in this case through a gasification process that releases hydrogen also) the carbon which is released is then captured for storage or use, this can be especially useful when burning plants that have grown on toxic ground or polluted rivers as a way of absorbing all the bad stuff which is then trapped forever and returned to an old coalmine along with all the carbon that originally came from there.
another interesting project that just got funding is DRIVE;
using the captured carbon to make useful materials like building aggregates makes it far more likely systems will get adopted, especially if they get to a price point where they're creating profitable items This is something a lot of people are working on
Another really cool use of captured carbon has recently passed a loads of tests from the US Air Force who've worked with a company called Twelve on a project to create a viable jet fuel from CO2,
the test facility they're currently building isn't going to produce much but it's a huge first step on the way to industrialisation of the technology,
that's only about 0.00007% of the Jet Fuel used per year, but if they refine the system and make one which can be built at any airport using power from onsite renewables then it's likely we'd see a very rapid adoption.