Capturing CO2 and turning it into Fuel

If we already know how to capture carbon dioxide (CO 2

Carbon Engineering has proven at its Canadian pilot plant in Squamish, British Columbia that it can suck greenhouse gases out of the air through so-called Direct Air Capture (DAC) and process them into liquid fuels at a cost nearly as cheap as producing fossil fuels

Massachusetts-based start-up Carbon Engineering formed in 2011 in an effort to produce and eventually commercialize DAC technology that can use captured CO 2 to make fuel at costs competitive with producing conventional fossil fuels. After several years of research and development and implementation of its technologies at a pilot plant in British Columbia, the company has been able to get the costs of capturing CO 2 down to ~$100/ton—six times less than previous models predicted was possible.

R&D like this isn’t limited to the U.S. Spain’s SUN-to-LIQUID project uses unique solar concentration technologies that combine sunlight with oxygen and atmospheric CO 2 to get three times as much energy out of the sun’s rays as existing solar “reactors.” The resulting “synthesis fuel” combines hydrogen and carbon monoxide and could be used to power vehicles or any type of engine equipped to deal with it.

And a team of Swiss and Norwegian scientists wants to put such technologies to use on millions of solar-powered floating islands at sea that could suck CO 2 out of the air and turn it into fuel without taking up any land or bothering human neighbors. Such a plan may seem far-fetched, but we need to be open to new idea if we are going to turn the tide on climate change before we reach the dreaded “point of no return.”

C ONTACTS: “Atmospheric CO2 hits record high in May 2019,” earthsky.org/earth/atmosphericco2-record-high-may-2019; “Renewable transportation fuels from water and carbon dioxide,” https:// phys.org/news/2019-06-renewable-fuels-carbon-dioxide.html; “A Process for Capturing CO2 from the Atmosphere,“ www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(18)30225-3; “11 million floating solar farms could eliminate carbon emissions from transport,” www.chemistryworld.com/news/11-millionfloating-solar-farms-could-eliminate-carbon-emissions-from-transport-/3010580.article.