We’re surrounded by billions of tons of it every day, it gives us life and helps protect us from the radiation of space, yet we don’t seem to give it the respect it deserves. Ever since the industrial revolution, the earths atmosphere has been bombarded with greenhouse emissions which has begun to manifest itself in the form of climate change. That’s right, the blazing hot summer we are currently enjoying is a by-product of the very climate change we’re talking about.
Despite the enjoyment of a hot summer (of which Britain doesn’t get many), climate change is very real and has caused much different changes to our weather than an enjoyable heatwave. Increased flooding and famine are just two of the very serious side effects of climate change.
One gas that has helped cause this problem is Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by more than a third since the Industrial Revolution began through the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil. We have also indulged in ample deforestation which is not necessarily a good idea as trees are natures natural CO2 scrubbers.
As we have developed as a society, along with our technological advancements, we have been able to measure the effects of our carbon footprint which is what has led to international alliances like the Paris agreement to be implemented (the Paris Agreement is an international effort to reduce climate change).
One major development that is beginning to take shape are Carbon Capture Devices from companies such as Climeworks or Global Thermostat. The general gist is that these large devices suck in atmosphere through an air collector where it is then put through amines or other sponge-like filters that separate the CO2.
This CO2 is then harvested and either stored underground or sold on to companies that have a need for CO2 (fizzy drinks manufacturers, agricultural businesses etc…).
The major drawback, as with most new technologies, is making it financially viable. Whilst we can all agree that you can’t put a price on the future of the earths survival, the reality is that businesses won’t really get involved unless it’s affordable. Jan Wurzbacher from Climeworks agrees, “We still have to go down a couple of steps on the cost curve, but in these niche applications already today, we can offer competitive CO2.”
One major drawback of this is that the CO2 scrubbed from the atmosphere will inevitably end up being dispersed back into the atmosphere once it is commercially used. Luckily, there are also other, more carbon neutral ways to deploy the gas. Using renewable energy, they can split water to create hydrogen, and then combine that with the carbon dioxide in various processes to create plastics (for example, for recycled CO2 sneakers) or fuel.
A great benefit of these machines is the fact they work out about 1,000 times more efficient than trees at removing CO2 from the atmosphere. This means you would need 1000 times less area to remove the same amount of oxygen. The IPCC, the international body that issues massive, comprehensive reports on climate change, has estimated that the world will need to be removing an average of 10 gigatons of CO2–10 billion tons–a year from the atmosphere by mid-century.
That’s a tall order for a technology that is unproven and still in its infancy but if we can get it right and mass produce them at an affordable price, we may still be able to reduce climate change (but hopefully keep the warm summers).
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