Nature’s carbon cycle already does this job. Why waste vast sums of money on dead-end technology ‚fixes‘ that can achieve next to nothing in global terms?
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Most carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies, which pull carbon dioxide from the air and use it for other emissions-lowering processes, emit more carbon than they capture, reports New Scientist.

This finding suggests that CCU projects, which have attracted billions of dollars in investment, won’t do much to achieve the Paris Agreement‘s emissions targets to prevent warming by more than 1.5°C.

CCU technologies take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, either capturing it directly from the air or absorbing it at polluting sources, and puts it to use in processes such as making fuel, plastics and concrete.

Unlike straightforward carbon capture technology, CCU doesn’t store the CO2 for long periods. CCU technologies either use energy to convert CO2 into fuels or use CO2 itself to drive other industrial processes like oil extraction or growing plants.

Kiane de Kleijne at Radboud University in the Netherlands and her colleagues assessed the life cycles of more than 40 CCU processes against three criteria: could they permanently store CO2; does the CO2 they collect come from atmospheric and natural sources; and does the process have zero emissions.

Kleijne and her team found that the majority of these technologies failed to meet these criteria, with 32 of the 40 emitting more carbon than they captured.

Only four methods appeared to be ready for use while also emitting low amounts of carbon. These include technologies that make use of CO2 in concrete production and for oil extraction.

Continued here.

via Tallbloke’s Talkshop

 February 19, 2022, by oldbrew 

Most carbon capture technologies create more emissions than they save