Better Than Fusion: Carbon N Capture
uclear fusion won’t produce usable power until at least the end of this century, long after unchecked climate change could wreak untold damage, according to L.J. Reinders, a European researcher, attorney and author. So, instead of chasing the pipe dream of fusion, scientists should concentrate on perfecting carbon capture technology that would scrub greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and deposit them deep underground, says Reinders, who’s writing a book on the subject. “We should put much more money into these [capture] technologies,” he maintains. “The concentration of carbon dioxide in the air at the moment is 450 parts per million. It’s almost twice what it was before the Industrial Revolution.” He applauds the United States for setting aside $10 billion for carbon capture research in the bipartisan $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into law on Nov. 15. But not everybody’s happy about the That’s when small-scale prospect of capturing the offending gases. Some carbon capture began in submarines. It later moved environmentalists oppose carbon capture because it to space stations. could prolong the use of the fossil fuels they’re trying to banish. Yet, if society strips carbon from the air efficiently and pumps it into old oil and gas fields, there’s no The cost of insulating need to reject coal, oil, gasoline and natural gas, nearly every house in Norway to reduce natural gas Reinders observes.
1930s
$307 billion consumption.
AN EARLY-STAGE TECHNOLOGY
Whatever one thinks of carbon capture, the science behind it hasn’t come of age. Removing a ton of carbon dioxide from the air costs about $500, five times the value of a ton of carbon traded on the European Emissions Trading System. Still, observers expect the cost to come down as the industry matures and its methods become more refined. Switching from today’s chemical
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$100
The value of a ton of carbon, according to the European Emissions Trading System.
34.8
Worldwide annual CO2 emissions for 2020 in billions of metric tons.
PHOTOGRAPH: REUTERS/TODD KOROL/FILE PHOTO
Although far from perfect, modules that sequester CO2 could help limit climate change By Ed McKinley
Shell is capturing carbon dioxide in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.
Luckbox | May 2022
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