Trees do it. People do it. The Birds and Bees do it.
They all Breathe. Even the Ocean "breathes" to some degree; currently it's holding its breath, with about as much CO2 as it can hold.
So why can't Scientists do it? -- create some sort of "vacuum cleaner" that can Breath in that CO2 and not let it back out? Turn into to something useful, say maybe algae fish food, for all our wind-powered fish farms?
Well, if they ever get the R&D budgets, those crazy scientists just might save us from our gas-guzzling ways.
There are some hopeful signs that the many technological challenges can be solved ... it is possible.
Now if only we could put a price on CO2 -- say $2000 and Ounce ... it'd probably all be gone in a few years.
"There's 'gold' in them thar skies."
Of course who can put a price on a "healthy planet" ... apparently not the free marketeers. They would rather just drill-to-the-last-drop -- that's where their 'gold' is ... their gold goes for $200 a barrel, on a good day.
[Note: what follows is a rewrite of a post from last April, it might be worth a second look.]
Carbon Capture and Storage offers Science-based hope of averting a planetary Climate Change disaster, in ways that perhaps you have not considered ...
"Carbon Capture and Storage" Huh? What's that?
Carbon Capture and Storage R&D Overview
U.S. Department of Energy - Updated: Feb 09, 2011
[DOE Graphic for Carbon Capture and Storage] larger
Roughly one third of the United States' carbon emissions comes from power plants and other large point sources. To stabilize and ultimately reduce concentrations of this greenhouse gas, it is necessary to employ carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. CCS is the process by which CO2 is isolated from the emissions stream, compressed, and transported to an injection site where it is stored underground permanently. The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy has made CCS a key element of its RD&D portfolio.
Here is one interesting application that could deal with the "Capture" part of that cycle, that could spread it beyond those "1/3 Points Sources" -- could in theory become a Global Thermostat, that would let us "dial in" our preferred CO2 level.
Go to the Carbon Source -- Power Plants -- and scrub and cap them.
Artificial Trees That Absorb CO2 ...
A CO2 Cleaning Machine May Change the Means of Going Green
14 January, 2010 -- Dr Klaus Lackner, their inventor, explains the latest about "Artificial Trees" in that link.
Or watch summary video next:
Artificial Trees That Absorb CO2 - Hot Planet Preview - BBC One
http://www.youtube.com/...
The clip explains :
Since CO2 is ubiquitous -- it is distributed-equally around the world -- these Artificial Tree plantations could be set up anywhere. And that it makes the most sense, to set them up right NEXT to the geologic rock formations, where the CO2 storage will take place -- THUS eliminating the energy cost of "transporting the carbon" to the storage area.
What would those Artificial Trees look like?
Forest of 100,000 Artificial Carbon-Capturing Trees Proposed in UK
by Brian Merchant, treehugger.com -- 08-27-2009
Now, scientists have taken the idea a step further -- they're proposing that one of the most practical ways to cut greenhouse gases on a large scale is to build a forest of 100,000 artificial trees over the next 10-20 years.
In its new report that outlines three practical geoengineering solutions to climate change, the UK based Institution of Mechanical Engineers has deemed artificial trees a development of utmost importance. So how would they work? They operate a form of carbon sequestration that catches CO2 from the air in a filter and holds it in storage.
[An early artificial tree prototype] larger
OK, those things sweep up CO2 out of air, by the truckload? ... I could get used to them. They're better that the alternative -- unstoppable wildfires.
Here's a more ethically pleasing view of what carbon catching trees could look like. This design firm in Boston, has apparently just got some new "marching orders" ...
Glowing artificial trees by Influx Studio and ShiftBoston could clean Boston's air
worldarchitecturenews.com -- 09 Mar 2011
[A CO2-scrubbing artificial tree -- TREEPODS envisioned at Influx Studio, Boston.]
Humidity swing technology, developed by Dr Klaus Lackner (Lenfest Center at Columbia University), allows the energy-efficient capture of CO2 from air, closing the carbon cycle and creating a valuable product. Inspired by him, the Boston’s TREEPODS INIATIVE, lead by Influx_Studio and ShiftBoston, looks to help towards the achievement of Boston’s goals in carbon reduction programs. [...]
From what I've been reading/watching the last few days, it was that serendipitous discovery/development of Humidity swing technology by the Lackner Team -- that discovery IS what took the Synthetic CO2 Tree off "the drawing-boards" -- and turned it into a "viable" technology. This Humidity Dip (ie. water bath) lowers the cost of extracting the "Collected CO2" from the Tree's Surfaces, over TEN FOLD. A recyclable process -- with no loss of extraction reactants.
Without this "off-loading" capability -- the Trees "fill up" with CO2 -- with no where to go quite quickly. And previously, quite "costly" to extract, a necessary step, before finding more "permanent storage" for all those TONS of collected CO2.
And afterall, that Cost per Ton of Carbon Capture -- the "currency of the realm" ...
Can we capture all of the world’s carbon emissions?
Scientific American
Ramez Naam -- Apr 1, 2011
The average citizen of the world will account for the release of four and a half tons -- 9,000 pounds -- of CO2 this year. The average American will be responsible for four times as much, almost 18 tons, or 36,000 pounds of carbon dioxide this year, roughly a hundred pounds of carbon dioxide emissions for every day of the year.
[...]
A recent study at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Management reviewed all previous work on cost estimation of CCS [Carbon Capture and Storage] at coal power plants, and determined that the long term cost would be somewhere between $35 and $70 dollars per ton of carbon dioxide captured and stored. The costs would start much higher for the first plants, as high as $150 per ton of CO2 captured and stored, but would drop rapidly as more plants were built and the industry scaled.
Fewer cost estimates are available for carbon capture from general atmosphere, but a number of private companies are now at work in the field, and the estimates they’ve discussed fall in roughly the same range -- $100 per ton of CO2 in the early stages, dropping to perhaps $30 to $50 per ton of CO2 as the technology is scaled.
If we could achieve a cost of $50 per ton of CO2, what would that do to energy prices?
Every $10 per ton of CO2 increases the cost of electricity by 1 cent per kilowatt hour, and increases the cost of gasoline by 10 cents per gallon. So a $50 per ton cost to capture CO2 would, if applied back to the cost of CO2 emissions, raise electricity prices by 5 cents per kilowatt hour and raise gasoline prices by 50 cents per gallon. That is not a bad price for avoiding catastrophic changes to the planet.
Would you pay an extra "50 cents per gallon" of gas, to halt CO2 build up in its tracks? -- that is the question.
That is always the question. Who's going to pay? Why should we? How will that happen?
Here's the answer to Why question:
Could US scientist's 'CO2 catcher' help to slow warming?
The Guardian, guardian.co.uk -- 31 May 2008
Climate experts at a monitoring station in Hawaii this month reported CO2 levels in the atmosphere have reached a record 387 parts per million (ppm) -- 40% higher than before the industrial revolution.
[as of May 2010 -- it was 393 ppm]
The quest for a machine that could reverse the trend by "scrubbing" carbon from the air is seen as one of the greatest challenges in climate science. Richard Branson has promised $25m (£12.6m) to anyone who succeeds.
[...]
The [Klaus Lackner] team is working to build a prototype at a laboratory in Tuscon, Arizona. Run by a company called Global Research Technologies (GRT), of which Lackner is vice president of research, the laboratory unveiled a "pre-prototype" air capture machine last year, based on a different technique -- rinsing trapped CO2 off the membrane with liquid sodium carbonate, and then using electricity to liberate the CO2 from the fluid.
Lackner says that device works, but the "humidity switch" could slash the scrubber's energy use tenfold. He said: "We can do it coming out carbon positive."
The team is also working on ways to dispose of the pure CO2 gas produced by each scrubber.
The patent suggests the scrubber could be connected to greenhouses, where the CO2 would boost plant growth. Or the gas could be used to grow algae, for food, fertiliser or fuel. The latter could "close the carbon loop," Lackner said.
Geophysicist Klaus Lackner Creates Artificial Trees to Remove CO2 From the Air
http://www.youtube.com/...
similar video clip
That is the stickler of a problem -- what do you Do with all those TONS of CO2 you've Captured?
How you store it, safely and cheaply. Most "drawing board" solutions like those in the intro DOE article -- rely on "pumping it into geologic rock layers, on a grand scale. There have been European Pilot projects -- that have proven this can work.
I personally favor, finding ways to recycle the CO2, into other useful Products and Bio-Fuels -- much as we use Crude Oil and turn it into a multitude of Products and Fuels, at refineries, with our currently technology. In other words, ease off the petro-products slowly.
Algae Farms -- fed by Captured CO2 -- would be the next link, in the "carbon loop" cycle, as Dr Lackner put it ... but more on that later.
I've listened to several videos by Dr, Klaus Lackner in researching this piece -- the guy impresses me. He is a REAL Scientist, more than an entrepreneur, as this University Lecture given by him, will attest. [Fair Warning: it's long, technical, and the audio fades in places -- but really digs into the nuts and bolts of Carbon Capture.]
Here's a more readable interview with him -- even if still a bit "techie" ...
From Synthetic Trees to Carbon Sponges: an interview with Scientist Klaus Lackner
Lindsay Meisel, the breakthrough institute -- March 18, 2008
"Our goal is to take a natural process that takes 100,000 years and compress it into 30 minutes."
Question:
From there, you went on to develop the first successful air capture prototype. Is this something that's ready to be commercialized?
Klaus Lackner:
We developed a pre-prototype that shows that all the pieces of this system work. Within two to four years it should be ready to be commercialized. The first time around it's always too expensive, but every time you do it, it gets a little cheaper. I think in the long term, the cost of capturing carbon dioxide from air will not be terribly different from conventional flue gas scrubbing, about $30 per ton of carbon dioxide, which corresponds to about 25 cents on the gallon.
That's almost nothing.
Even if I'm wrong, and its $50, that's not a terrible number. But Global Research Technologies won't hit even that first time around.
Would you pay an extra "25 to 50 cents per gallon" of gas, to halt CO2 build up in its tracks? -- I would. Those Big Oil tycoons, are going to force the price to $5 buck a gallon one of these days anyways. What's to stop them? Part of that take should go to cleaning up "this non-point source" -- all our motor vehicles.
Assuming by some miracle, Carbon Capture catches on in BIG Way, as it has started to do in Europe -- with its high-volume Carbon Markets -- What Then?
What do we do with all those TONS of Carbon, we've manage to "scrub" from the Skies?
As I said before:
Algae Farms -- fed by Captured CO2 -- would be the next link, in the "carbon loop" to recycle the CO2, into other useful Products and Bio-Fuels.
That is another Research Topic, for another day -- but here are a few highlights from an Algae R&D company in this area, I pulled together this morning, to give you a better idea of the possibilities:
Carbon Capture Corporation -- Vision
Algae for a Sustainable Tomorrow
Our vision is to help reverse global warming while producing local, affordable, renewable and sustainable fuels. We utilize carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from stationary sources such as fossil fuel power plants to accelerate the growth of algae, and plan on using the resulting biomass to produce green alternatives to natural gas, butanol, diesel or jet fuel propellants.
Carbon Capture Corporation
[...] its mission which is to:
-- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
-- Produce sustainable fuels
-- Produce feed
Carbon Capture Corporation remains a leader in the algae-based biofuel industry, spurred by growing concerns over reliance on imported oil, shortages of food supplies, and greenhouse gas emissions leading to global warming. These concerns have created demand for algae-based products that can provide alternative fuels, supplement the world’s food supply, and help reduce carbon emissions.
The Company [Carbon Capture Corporation] operates open algae ponds with a total capacity of 8 million gallons located on an existing 40-acre Algae Research Center ("ARC") which is part of a 326-acre research and development facility in Imperial Valley, California.
Carbon Capture Corporation was formed in 2006 by the owners of Imperial Group and key members of its management team are now actively involved in running the company. This group of individuals, through Imperial Group, successfully executed over $100 million in federal contracts issued by various agencies between 1993 and 2010.
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Who can put a Price on the Environment?
What is it worth, to our long-run well being?
What is it worth to our children? ... to our species?
The Free Market will never price it adequately or fairly -- the Free Market is forever stuck within its own short-term Time Horizon. From which nothing escapes the gravitational pull of its Commoditization engines. Nothing except their buckets of money ... or is that more like wheel barrels.
Until we stop giving polluters a "free ride" for the long term costs of their pollution -- costs to be borne by our children, by untold future generations.
Until we put a "fair price" on CO2 captured -- chances are, not much will change; at least not change fast enough. The forces of Supply and Demand need their short-term incentives.
Until it is no longer acceptable for the Captains of Industry to breath out their smoke, into our living-rooms ... into our planetary living space, into our aquifers ...
Until then, well, we had all just get really good at holding our breath. Maybe stock up on that sunscreen too -- because were going to need it.
Thank you for reading. ... for thinking. ... for acting.