The waste-pyramid suggests reuse prior to recycling and thereafter energy-recovery – maybe this leads too early into destruction of Carbon? At least Mother Nature would teach us better. Its various forms of Carbon transformation keeps most part of it chemically stored. So it can be used again in its new form – we prove that every day we use fossil energy.
There is an academic discussion about what may be called recycling and what reuse. Carbotopia™ once resorted to Carbon resurrection to describe its transformation from end of lifecycle carbon via physical Carbon Capture for Re-Use in chemical synthesis or material applications. However, since such physical Carbon Capture can substitute crude oil or coal -carbon in chemical synthesis, such secondary use of any end of lifecycle aerial Carbon should be allowed to be called Carbon Recycling.
Carbon Recycling in the form of physical Carbon Capture for (re-)Use enables to keep Carbon stored in matter over the lifecycles of their equivalent to fossil substitute new products, during their whole recycling cascades. Of course, depending on the Hydrogen : Carbon Ratio of physical Carbon Capture input as well as choice of downstream usage path Carbon Recycling is associated by transformation losses in the form of partial CO2 discharge. But in a similar order of magnitude and just like in the case of Mother Nature’s transformations.
YES, we are aware of the fact that transformation energy requirements may be viewed as a show-stopper to our Acetylene from Captured graphene like Carbon. The point however is that given the morphology of this Carbon, part of the transformation energy could be contributed by electric induction, allowing to set reaction temperature regimes to levels where unwanted rebound equilibrium reactions can be mitigated. Since the processes for putting Carbon back into the cycle of matter may be timed independently from its rates of even remote capture, renewable forms of energy may be considered as a source. We see the abundance of solar energy proverbial for such an approach. Elsewhere it may be geothermal energy, etc. And if there was no chemical Use for the Carbon it always could be re-Used as an Energy Storage.
Let me perhaps unravel the enigma, how we can dare graphene like carbon to be inexpensive enough to consider for clean energy solutions – for physical use of course the big cost drivers of catalyst-loss and cleaning procedures are omnipresent – but not so if the catalyst system is the residue from graphene’s chemical cannibalization.
#CarbonRecycling, #CarbonCaptureUse, #CarbonMetabolism