There is no doubt that we need a game changer that will help change our thinking and replace the technologies that lead to the production of carbon dioxide during the combustion of fossil fuels with technologies capable of reducing its emissions on a large scale.
Not only scientists, but also a number of companies and entrepreneurs work to develop new technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and directly eliminate CO2 from the atmosphere. This group includes companies such as Climeworks, Carbon Engineering (supported, among others, by Bill Gates), Global Thermostat (cooperating with the Coca-Cola Company) and many others.
Here is a list of unusual solutions that may help save our planet:
Solution No. 1. Bury the problem in the ground (literally)
One approach to eliminating CO2 is the use of CCS (carbon capture and storage) technology, known and developed for years, which generally involves capturing CO2 before it reaches the atmosphere, transporting and depositing it, for example, in the ground, or processing it. This technology is used mainly in areas where carbon dioxide is produced in large quantities (e.g., power plants), its use is limited on a large scale.
Solution No. 2. Capture CO2 from the air and sell it to a carbonated beverage manufacturer
A similar approach, although slightly more effective, is to capture CO2 directly from the atmosphere. And although it seems unreasonable at first glance, the first commercial farm to capture CO2 from the atmosphere was put into operation by the Swiss company Climeworks in 2017. Carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere was used, among others, to stimulate the growth of plants in greenhouses, and was also sold to manufacturers of carbonated beverages.</p>
Solution No. 3. Build a plant, saturate water, pump it underground
Climeworks’ biggest project to date (to eliminate carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere) is “Orca.” It is a commercial plant put into service in Iceland in 2021. Its capacity to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere is estimated at 4000 tonnes per year. “Orca” resembles metal containers, which, with the use of fans, pump air into a collector, whose task is to capture CO2 and thus to “concentrate” it, so that in the next stage this concentrated carbon dioxide could be used to saturate water, which is then pumped about 1 km underground. The accumulated carbon dioxide deep underground is mineralized and, as a result, transformed into environmentally harmless carbonates. Additionally, the installation is powered with renewable energy, i.e., geothermal energy from nearby hot springs.
Climeworks is already working on much larger projects (e.g., in Scotland and the USA) capable of eliminating up to one million tonnes of CO2 per year directly from the atmosphere, which corresponds to the amount of CO2 absorbed by about 40 million trees.
Elon Musk has offered the largest ever prize of up to $100 million for the best carbon dioxide removal technology. The competition will be held until 2025. And we’re following it very closely.
You can read more about it on our blog in an article by Maciej Stodulski, PhD >>