City Lab - Using technology currently in development, AC units in skyscrapers and even your home could get turned into machines that not only capture CO2, but transform the stuff into a fuel for powering vehicles that are difficult to electrify, like cargo ships. The concept, called crowd oil, is still theoretical and faces many challenges. But in these desperate times, crowd oil might have a place in the fight to curb climate change.
... To retrofit an air conditioner to capture CO2 and turn it into fuel, you’d need a rather extensive overhaul of the components. Meaning, you wouldn’t just be able to ship a universal device for folks to bolt onto their units. First of all, you’d need to incorporate a filter that would absorb CO2 and water from the air. You’d also need to include an electrolyzer to strip the oxygen molecule from H2O to get H2, which you’d then combine with CO2 to get hydrocarbon fuels. “Everyone can have their own oil well, basically,” Ozin says.
The researchers’ analysis found that the Frankfurt Fair Tower in Germany (chosen by lead author Roland Dittmeyer of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, by the way, because of its landmark status in the city’s skyline), with a total volume of about 200,000 cubic meters, could capture 1.5 metric tons of CO2 per hour and produce up to 4,000 metric tons of fuel a year. By comparison, the first commercial “direct air capture” plant, built by Climeworks in Switzerland, captures 900 metric tons of CO2 per year, about 10 times less, says Dittmeyer. An apartment building with five or six units could capture 0.5 kg of CO2 an hour with this proposed system.
2 comments:
I get so annoyed with people pinning their hopes on atmospheric carbon reduction through new technologies that either don't exist or exist as an underperforming prototype in it's infancy. It might work once it's built, or it might not work at all, or it might work after 50 years of further development. How much energy will it use? How profitable for the corporation that markets it will this invention be, and how will inequality affect it's use. That is no way to deal with an urgent crisis.
There are real actions that can be taken now that only require education and and political will. Soil is the best place to sequester carbon, and to get it there takes existing techniques like reforestation, regenerative agriculture, and holistic grazing.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/study-white-oak-pastures-beef-reduces-atmospheric-carbon-300841416.html
Or for those that tweet and want to know more check out, @BuildSoil
Right on. My first thought was like yours: oh, how nice, another system that claims immunity from the Second Law.
I wonder why the concept of using LESS energy seems to be so elusive.
Post a Comment