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World’s biggest plant to capture CO2 from the air just opened in Iceland

World’s biggest plant to capture CO2 from the air just opened in Iceland

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Message 64442 - Posted: 9 Sep 2021, 17:43:33 UTC

The Orca, an installation built by Climeworks, will capture 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year — and serve as a blueprint for similar technology.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/09/08/co2-capture-plan-iceland-climeworks/
https://climeworks.com/orca
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Message 64456 - Posted: 12 Sep 2021, 12:43:17 UTC - in response to Message 64442.  

The Orca, an installation built by Climeworks, will capture 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year — and serve as a blueprint for similar technology.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/09/08/co2-capture-plan-iceland-climeworks/
https://climeworks.com/orca


Given the need to generate clean electricity to make this work and that doing so has it's own ecological footprint, I am afraid, I don't really rate carbon capture as a solution.
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Message 64459 - Posted: 13 Sep 2021, 20:57:21 UTC - in response to Message 64456.  
Last modified: 13 Sep 2021, 21:03:07 UTC

The plant is fully sustainable as the energy needed for operation comes from the neighboring geothermal facility and that is almost as good as it can get. Source:
Bloomberg

The facility, called Orca and built by Swiss startup Climeworks AG, will suck CO₂ out of the air. Icelandic startup Carbfix will then pump it deep into the ground, turning it into stone forever. Of the 16 installations Climeworks has built across Europe, Orca is the only one that permanently disposes of the CO₂ rather than recycling it.

The Orca plant draws in large amounts of air with huge fans, bringing the air in contact with chemicals that can selectively remove CO₂ while releasing nitrogen, oxygen and other gases back into the atmosphere. The carbon-rich chemicals are then heated to about 100°C to release CO₂ as a pure gas.

Carbfix mixes the gas with water and injects it deep into basaltic rock. The dissolved CO₂ crystallizes into a mineral in about two years, permanently storing it away. The energy for all those steps comes from the Hellisheidi geothermal plant.

Replicating that combination of factors — basaltic rock and cheap zero-carbon energy — at another location won’t be easy. It’s possible to store CO₂ in other geological formations where they don’t turn into rock, akin to what happens to oil and gas. But using zero-carbon energy is key, otherwise the process could generate more CO₂ than it stores.


But why not share this in the climate change news thread?

Sadly I don’t know the technical stuff behind CCS technology so I am rather unqualified to comment on its viability/efficiency. Planting trees, forest management and rewinding sounds more efficient to me but reversing some of our anthropogenic damage caused by CO2 emissions using tech doesn’t sound too bad... as long as the premise of using green energy for plant operation holds true. Maybe we can make this into a thread to discuss CCS tech in general.
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Message 64460 - Posted: 14 Sep 2021, 5:16:03 UTC

Research conducted by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) points to livestock as the culprit for producing the most methane (CH4) per day, thereby increasing the threat of Global Warming. (Read: Anthropogenic emissions of methane in the United States)

This finding is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), stating that livestock is the “largest source of methane from human-related activities.”

Methane is a colourless, odourless, tasteless, and flammable natural gas on Earth used for fuel and has been claimed by experts to contribute to the Global Warming phenomenon due to methane’s more effective heat-trapping capability in the Earth’s atmosphere than Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

Livestock, particularly cows, emit methane gas through their fart. PNAS research claims cows’ noxious flatulence are producing twice as much methane gas as previously believed by scientists. A single cow can produce between 250 litres and 500 litres (about 66 gallons to 132 gallons) of methane a day.
https://www.quora.com/What-animal-produces-the-most-methane-in-a-day?share=1
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https://www.ibtimes.com/cow-farts-have-larger-greenhouse-gas-impact-previously-thought-methane-pushes-climate-1487502

The EPA has also recognized the contribution cow farts are making to Earth’s greenhouse gases, stating earlier that globally, livestock is the “largest source of methane from human-related activities,” and are the third-largest source of methane in the U.S. A 1995 study of methane emissions from cattle found that cows typically lose about 6 per cent of their ingested energy as methane, partly a result of their slow digestive process. A single cow can produce between 250 and 500 litres, or about 66 to 132 gallons, of methane a day (the average U.S. vehicle gas tank can hold about 16 gallons of gas).
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We will have to fit a mini plant at the backside of every herbivore, which includes us also.
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Message 64463 - Posted: 14 Sep 2021, 12:11:39 UTC
Last modified: 14 Sep 2021, 12:20:17 UTC

BTW, almost all the bovine methane comes in their belching from the work of the bacteria living in one of their four ruminant stomachs. Feeding cows the seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis is very effective in reducing their methane emissions.
"The seaweed inhibits an enzyme in the cow’s digestive system that contributes to methane production." Molecular biologists will also study this to develop small molecules that inhibit this enzyme that can be massed produced. They may also use CRISPR to knock out that enzyme's gene in germ cells and create cows that do not even make the enzyme.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/feeding-cattle-seaweed-reduces-their-greenhouse-gas-emissions-82-percent

Mother Nature's solution to too much carbon dioxide is to make limestone. E.g., The Great Basin has thousands of feet of limestone since the western margin of the North American continent has spent millions of years as a warm shallow sea with the sea level rising and falling. That process is too slow to help us much now but technological advancements on that idea are welcome. Their article shows a substantial increase in efficiency and cost reduction. I look forward to hearing more about this approach.
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