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The Existential Crisis of Global Warming -- Is Carbon Capture the Answer?

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Bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is also being employed. As an example, Archer Daniels Midland began to capture CO2 emitted at its Decatur, Illinois, ethanol plant in 2017. It is now successfully storing a million tons of CO2 per year underground Scientists estimate the potential of BECCS at 0.5-5.0 GtCO2 per year (ERL, June 2018). The technology is stable with good future prospects when other manufacturers also try to (or are obliged to) achieve carbon neutrality.

Biochar is formed from the pyrolysis of agricultural and forestry waste in a controlled process with reduced oxygen. Not only is the carbon prevented from escaping but the char can be used to improve soil quality. It can prevent from 0.5-2.0 GtCO2 per year from polluting the atmosphere, and scaling will reduce costs enhancing its potential.

Enhanced weathering refers to the improved absorption of CO2 by rocks like basalt to levels higher than the natural slow process. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research estimates the cost at $200 per ton of CO2 using basalt and $60 per ton for dunite i.e. about double the cost for afforestation. A handicap perhaps but afforestation is limited by land availability, and absorption by basalt could remove up to 4.9 GtCO2 annually, according to Potsdam estimates. For best results, the rock has to be mined, ground up and spread out since CO2 absorption levels are heavily dependent on grain size. The process does appropriate land limiting use in arable areas.

Soil carbon sequestration can absorb up to 5 GtCO2 per year (2018). It requires providing a continuous cover instead of letting fields remain bare after harvest to reduce carbon loss. Other methods include no-till or conservation tillage. The accumulated benefits with cropland, however, can be temporary and easily eroded if the land is ever plowed, calling for education programs in addition. There is also agroforestry i.e. combining farming with trees and livestock grazing, which can be an option in some, but not all, farms and climates.

A new attractive technology is the direct conversion of CO2 into fuel. It is an approach being used by Carbon Engineering of Squamish, B.C. in Canada. Air-captured CO2 and supplemental hydrogen split from water are combined to produce gasoline and diesel for less than $4 per gallon. The hydrogen removal uses renewable energy.

Of the 40 billion tons of CO2 emitted annually, half is absorbed naturally. The 20 billion tons remaining at present require human input to be eliminated. A strategy employing a variety of techniques makes particularly good sense given the unusual possibilities opening up and the limitations of any single method. On the other end of the scale, radical transitions in energy usage, transport, buildings, even cities, coupled with low-emissions energy production will reduce annual emissions. What is left has to be recaptured to attain net carbon neutrality. It is a monumental task requiring international cooperation including, if necessary, monetary incentives for poor and middle income countries. Of utmost importance is to get started.

It is an insidious ailment for planet earth, its presence felt by the extraordinary intensity of extreme weather events -- Cyclone Eline and Idai devastating Mozambique in quick succession, for example, were an unexpected event for the southern hemisphere. On the other hand, such vagaries of weather as a cold spell, can draw mockery from President Donald Trump who proposes to do nothing. He has emboldened others like Jair Bolsonaro, the new President of Brazil.

The real question is whether the American people will exercise profound discernment when the next election comes around. If the senate's confidence is any judge, they will not. The senate voted 57-0 against the Green New Deal, the number including two Democratic senators. The remaining Democrats voted 'present'. Not one Democrat stood up to be counted for GND under the pretense the Republicans were trying to split them.


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Arshad M Khan is a former Professor. Educated at King's College London, Oklahoma State University and the University of Chicago, he has a multidisciplinary background that has frequently informed his research. He was elected a Fellow of the (more...)
 
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