These days are unusual. The global economy is on its knees due to the corona-virus pandemic. Our PM announced a 21-day lock-down to fight it. During this quarantine, I came across a post saying that this virus was just a trailer.
Can you believe it?
- With 1,133,452 infected
- 60,378 deaths and
- A prediction stating this virus will infect 50% of the population;
It looked like real life Thanos and this post called it a trailer? I didn’t believe it.
Then I saw a picture of a glacier melting beside it. It called this the whole movie. I freezed for a while, scared and thinking that the post isn’t wrong.
It isn’t a prediction, it is happening. Global warming, the end of the world is happening. Yet, there is a group of people who don’t know what Global Warming is.
It is the increase in the average temperature of Earth, primarily caused by greenhouse gases. The negative effects are many. So, in short, it means this will make this planet unlivable.
A simple solution is to eliminate greenhouse gases permanently, right? No emissions. Unfortunately, it’s not possible because this is the same gas that keeps the planet livable.
Confused right? I was too.
Earth is encircled by various gases like oxygen, carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen, water vapor, etc. together called the atmosphere. They form a protective blanket due Earth’s gravity.
Sun emits not only light but also heatwaves. They pass through this blanket and reflect back from the earth’s surface but this blanket traps some of the heat waves keeping the Earth’s temperature warm. This is called the greenhouse effect. This, with other factors, keeps the Earth a livable planet.
If it wasn’t for the blanket, Earth will be exposed to the extreme cold of the solar system and the temperature would be around -300C.
Have you heard of any kind of life in Antarctic other than polar bears and penguins?
The problem is if these gases increase beyond a certain limit, it traps more heat. This raises global temperatures.
Cassandra Clare, in her book City of Lost Souls, said,
“too much of anything could destroy you, too much darkness could kill you, but too much light could blind you.”
Why CO2 is the only focal point when the atmosphere has other gases?
There are 2 reasons:
- Scientists John Tyndall and Eunice Foote found that CO2, water vapor, methane absorb heat (which makes it warm) while oxygen, nitrogen accounting for 99% of the atmosphere don’t.
- From those heat-absorbing gases, CO2 accounts for 70% – 75% of the total greenhouse emissions.
This makes CO2 an issue that needs to be resolved.
There are a lot of efforts being taken to reduce CO2 emissions to 0. For example, Electric cars, solar energy, etc.
But this won’t be enough.
The level of carbon in the atmosphere is excessive. Just stopping carbon emissions won’t work.
We need to remove the excess.
Fortunately, the technology for doing it exists.
Carbon capture and removal
It is a process of capturing carbon atoms and removing them from the atmosphere via storage or utilization in other forms.
This tech is not new. It’s been more than 20 years for the Sleipner CSS project in Norway and succeeded in capturing 17 Million Tonnes of CO2 from an offshore natural gas production facility and permanently stored them in a sandstone formation deep under the sea bed.
But here, lies another problem. There is no market for the storage of carbon. Companies can’t recover the cost until converted into a product that can be used. Fortunately, captured CO2 can be used as a commercial product, either directly or after conversion.
There are 3 main steps carbon capture and removal:
- Capturing the CO2 from other gases.
- Transporting it to a storage location.
- Storing it far from the atmosphere.
Carbon is captured by these 3 methods:
Credit: Science Direct
(The first line in the flow chart are industries that emit CO2)
Current stats of this industry
- A total of 36 companies in this industry.
- Capital invested is around $1.99 Billion.
- Few companies in this space:
- Carbon Engineering (Backed by Bill Gates)
- IEA states, this tech will contribute up to 19% of global CO2 emissions by 2050. Fighting climate change costs without it would be 70% higher.
- It will be needed to deliver negative emissions if the goal of below 20C above pre-industry levels needs to be achieved.
- Global Carbon Capture, Storage & Utilization (CCS&U) market accounted for $2.98 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $20.05 billion by 2026 growing at a CAGR of 23.5%. (Source: Research and Markets)
There no threat greater than this. We need to be responsible and act. I want the upcoming generation to live in the planet I lived. The tools needed to fight global warming to achieve the goal exists. CCS&U tech is one of the many.
What do you think about the CCS&U and what other tools are you using to fight this monster? I would be interested to read about your it in the comments section.