According to the most recent research, in February 2024, the ocean’s surface temperature was 1.77 C higher than the pre industrial time, compared to that time of the year. Oceans are not only the garbage bag for human waste, oceans have soaked about 90 percent of the excess heat caused by the greenhouse gas emissions in the last decades. These levels, if continued, would have a destructive effect on the lifecycle of the oceans which is carried on to life on the land.
As our struggle to lower greenhouse emissions continues, Another way to combat climate change is to suck back carbon dioxide molecules that have been spread into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution.
Carbon Engineering is one firm that has been working on this process for a long time, before climate change became a major global concern. In one of the designs air is entered into a honeycomb plastic slab which contains aqueous Potassium Hydroxide. Being acidic Carbon Dioxide reacts and Potassium Carbonate is created. This Potassium Carbonate is then exposed to Calcium Hydroxide. The result is Potassium Hydroxide and Calcium Carbonate. Potassium Hydroxide is returned to the slab to react with water again. Calcium Carbonate is then heated up to 900 C. At this heat level the Carbon Dioxide is released and the Calcium Hydroxide is produced and returned to the second stage of purification. This diagram has been patented in 2015. A pilot plant with a dimension of 5 meters and 3 meters and 3 meters, has been working for many years. It extracts one tonne of Carbon Dioxide from air.
Handling Carbon Dioxide is of course another issue. One proposal is to turn it to some sort of fuel, the technology to do this already exists. But in this case the fuel is green but the plant is not an air purifier anymore! In other scenarios the gas should turn into harmless and non-reactant material that can be deposited easily.
The cost of air purifiers is also another issue. Initial estimates back in 2010 estimated that including cost of capital and operating costs, extracting 1 tonne of carbon dioxide from air requires $ 600. Another cost evaluation in 2018 estimated $94 to $232 for extracting 1 tonne of carbon removal from air. It is still much higher than 10 bucks, carbon credit, which is traded in carbon allowance markets.
Carbon engineering started the production of its large-scale plant in 2022 in Texas, it is supposed to start working in 2025. The technology is still nascent but it is another way to move closer to net zero emission, that is needed for a sustainable environment.
