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There’s a global race to reduce the amount of harmful gases in our atmosphere to slow down the pace of climate change, and one way to do that is through carbon capture and sequestration — sucking carbon out of the air and burying it. At this point, however, we’re capturing only a fraction of the carbon needed to make any kind of dent in climate change.
Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, in partnership with ExxonMobil, have made a new discovery that may go a long way in changing that. They have found a way to supercharge the formation of carbon dioxide-based crystal structures that could someday store billions of tons of carbon under the ocean floor for centuries, if not forever.
“I consider carbon capture as insurance for the planet,” said Vaibhav Bahadur (VB), an associate professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and the lead author of a new paper on the research in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. “It’s not enough anymore to be carbon neutral, we need to be carbon negative to undo damage that has been done to the environment over the past several decades.”
Journal Reference:
Aritra Kar, Palash Vadiraj Acharya, Awan Bhati, et al. Magnesium-Promoted Rapid Nucleation of Carbon Dioxide Hydrates, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c03041)
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday October 04 2021, @04:49PM (3 children)
I have access to numerous cheap and effective CO2 sequestration systems that easily lock up the carbon for decades at a minimum. And they're solar powered, along with some inputs of water and compounds commonly found in the natural environment. These complex systems are known as "trees".
(I know this is not up to the scale of the problem because the sponsor of this study keeps on happily digging dead plankton out of the ground to burn while lots of people with access to this solution are literally setting it on fire, but this solution at least exists rather than being theoretical.)
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 04 2021, @04:56PM
agreed, but ... mushrooms. you gotta keep the mushrooms, that get their energy from braking the solidified carbon into gas (co2), from getting to it?
someone said that all coal dug up today, was created before mushrooms evolved :(
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Tuesday October 05 2021, @02:27AM (1 child)
FYI, an acre of fast growing high cellulose crops like Hemp or Bamboo, will produce 4 times more Carbon sequestering biomass per year than an acre of trees in the same time.
So quit hugging that tree and start planting that grass!!
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @01:07PM
How about don't burn any fossil fuels? In our sustainable community we have even done away with the need for heat in the winter by taking an example from mother nature. If used nationwide, synchronized collective shivering could reduce the global temperature by up to 2 degrees.