A Canadian company has taken a cardinal step towards developing carbon capture technology that could ante up for itself . The engineering , being acquire by Carbon Engineering , aims to strip CO2from the air and wrench itinto a carbon paper - impersonal fuelthat could then go straight back into auto .
One of the main problems with the applied science to day of the month has but been one of shell and , more importantly , toll . A cogitation convey out in 2011 concluded that to seize a single ton of carbon it would cost around $ 600 , which needless to say is just far too expensive .
But Carbon Engineering claim to have dramatically slashed this , get it down to $ 100 per net ton and have the whole process far more economical .
“ [ Carbon Engineering ’s ] sight is to reduce the consequence of clime change by first cutting emission , then by reducing atmospherical CO2,”explainsthe company ’s CEO Steve Oldham . “ Our clean fuel is to the full compatible with existing engines , so it provides the conveyance sector with a solution for importantly reducing emissions , either through meld or direct use . ”
“ Our technology is scalable , flexible and demonstrated . ”
The company was set up in 2009 , with itsmain backers includingBill Gates and the oil littoral zone funder Norman Murray Edwards . It work by pulling melodic phrase into cooling tug , where it then total into contact with a solution of atomic number 19 hydrated oxide , which reacts with the CO2to make potassium carbonate . After a few more step , the society is effectively leave with a pellet of calcium carbonate .
This can thenbe used one of two ways . When stir up , the shot releases the CO2that can then be pressurise and pump underground . However , the ship’s company plan to use the gas – with the addition of hydrogen derived from water – to make a C - neutral synthetic fuel that can be directly used by cars , boats , and planes .
One of the main criticisms against the development of young technologies like these is that it is all just a misdirection from the more boring try that could be done to thin carbon copy discharge here and now . We already have many of the technological solution necessary , it just require politicians , governments , and legislation to push them through .
By doing it this way , however , companies debate that once the atmospheric CO2levels have been brought back down to safe levels , it could potentially provide an outright clean and renewable physique of fuel , which would likely attract significant investment .
Carbon Engineering have been running a airplane pilot plant life since 2015 , and currently harvest about a ton of carbon paper a day . In the future , they hope that this will become more or less 2,000 barrels of fuel .
