Some of you may have attended the Scholars Forum/WISE event featuring author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming David Wallace-Wells. Mr Wells shared many of his incredible ideologies with us in the talk, during which he brought up carbon capturers. Since then I’ve been meaning to look them up and there was a lot of really cool information which I’ve decided to write about here.
Companies that manufacture “carbon capturers” use a process called Direct Air Capture. Simply, DAC starts with large fans that pull air in through a filter before using a liquid chemical solution to absorb the carbon from the air. The carbon is then forced to create Calcium Carbonate which is the heated to produce pure carbon dioxide which is either stored underground or can be used as a renewable component in fuels.
The industry originally estimated that the economic cost of implementing tis technology would cost $600 per ton of carbon. But, as of June 2019 the price has decreased to $94-$232, a much more affordable cost. This procedure has drawn attention and funding from lots of places.
Now, this is where it gets interesting, much of the funding that currently keeps the bigger DAC startups, like Carbon Engineering, afloat is provided by gas giants like Chevron and BHP. This to me seems like a bit of a conflict of interest.
It is proven that Carbon Capturing alone cannot stop global warming but many believe it is necessary to give the world time to adjust to a greener lifestyle, but by allowing gas giants to put on this mask of sustainability do we just give them more room to pollute our planet?
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