Reduce, reuse, recycle, and retrieve? How capturing existing emissions may help save us from global warming disasters

Turning off lights when you leave a room; unplugging chargers when they are not in use; taking shorter showers; carpooling and using public transportation. All of these actions, while important to adapt to the age of global warming, leave very little impact in the long run. In order to keep rising temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius, not only do we need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted, but we also need to extract what’s already in the atmosphere.

Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company co-founded by Bill Gates, may have just the solution. They have developed technology that captures carbon dioxide from the air and converts it to liquid fuel, creating a net zero emission energy source. The process involves capturing and purifying carbon dioxide from the air and reacting it with hydrogen from water to produce fuel. When burning the fuel, an equivalent amount of emissions are released as were extracted from the air to produce it, resulting in net zero emissions and nearly zero particulate matter or sulfur.

Carbon Engineering developed technology that captures carbon dioxide from the air and converts it to liquid fuel, creating a net zero emission energy source.

Carbon Engineering’s method of carbon dioxide capture is much less resource dependent than other forms like reforestation and biofuels. The plants producing this fuel rely on renewable sources like hydropower, solar, and wind. In addition, it requires 100 times less land and water use.

In a 2018 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius can avoid many catastrophic effects that would result from a 2-degree Celsius increase. In this report, they proposed actions to achieve this, including: reaching net zero emissions by 2050, transitioning to renewable energy in urban and infrastructure use, and removing 100–1000 gigatons of carbon dioxide during the 21^st century, all which could be achieved using Carbon Engineering’s technology.

Electric cars have reduced carbon emissions, and short-haul transportation has the potential to greatly rely on electricity while long-haul transportation like planes, trains, and ferries cannot. Carbon Engineering’s mission is to have transportation running on low-carbon and renewable energy by the year 2050. To make this transition easier, this fuel can be blended with traditional fossil fuels to gradually reduce the demand for crude oil.

Many countries have adopted a Carbon Tax, a fee companies must pay per ton of carbon dioxide emissions they produce.

Many countries have adopted a Carbon Tax, a fee companies must pay per ton of carbon dioxide emissions they produce. Burning this fuel would result in net zero emissions, so companies would not have to pay a carbon tax. While the price of this fuel is more expensive than traditional fossil fuels, applying the cost of a carbon tax makes it a competitive fuel source.

In an interview with National Geographic, Harvard Professor of Applied Physics and founder of Carbon Engineering, David Keith, argued that Carbon Engineering is worth investing in to mitigate the impacts of climate change. He states, “This isn’t going to save the world from the impacts of climate change, but it’s going to be a big step on the path to a low-carbon economy.” 

While there is growing support for the cause, there are also many skeptics. Their biggest concern is that these technologies may not meet the expectations and could have negative impacts if we rely on them too much. In an article published in Science, Professor Kevin Anderson, deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research states, “They are not an insurance policy; they are a high-risk gamble with tomorrow’s generations, particularly those living in poor and climatically vulnerable communities, set to pay the price if our high-stakes bet fails to deliver as promised.” If the technology does not deliver as promised, it could result in future generations paying the price of exponentially increasing emissions.

Dr. Matthew Eckelman, a Civil and Environmental Engineering professor at Northeastern University, emphasized the need for carbon dioxide removal from the Earth’s atmosphere. “Carbon dioxide removal or negative emissions technology look to be vital. Many of the global climate models are showing that stopping emissions will not be enough to slow warming to a scenario of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline, and that the only way to meet our climate targets is aggressive CO2 removal,” Eckelman said in an interview with NU Sci.

“Many of the global climate models are showing that stopping emissions will not be enough to slow warming… the only way to meet our climate targets is aggressive CO2 removal.”

Dr. Matthew Eckelman, Northeastern University professor

In addition to Carbon Engineering’s technology, Eckelman is interested in other methods of carbon dioxide removal, like afforestation and reforestation. He believes that a process called Bioenergy Crops with Carbon Capture Storage (BECCS) could be a viable solution. “If we use those plants for bioenergy, capture the resulting CO2, and store it in geologic formations, we can achieve long-term removal of CO2,” Eckelman said. Still, Eckelman is hopeful in Carbon Engineering’s technology, “but, so much comes down to cost, and I am very interested to see if Carbon Engineering can bring its costs down further as it builds more facilities and gains more experience with their process.”

While it is unknown whether Carbon Engineering’s technology will deliver as promised, action must be taken to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which requires massive innovations to actively remove what is already present. The planet has already taken a toll from human abuse, and innovations like this must be investing in if we are going to save the planet for future generations.

Science (2016). DOI: 10.1126/science.aah4567

Image source: Pixabay