"How One Company Pulls Carbon From The Air, Aiming To Avert A Climate Catastrophe" NPR's Jeff Brady, Dec. 10th, 2018
Article Summary by Milana Baldizzi
With the large amount of excess carbon dioxide in the air, global warming is only worsening, and a recent U.N report has found that reducing emissions "...may not be enough to avoid dangerous impacts from the warming climate". In a recent article written by NPR's Jeff Brady, we are introduced to a developing technology aimed to assist in reverting the effects of climate change. Carbon Engineering, a Canadian-based clean energy company, has been working on a processing plant that captures CO2 in the air and retaining it. The CO2 is then combined with other chemicals to create small white pellets, which have about 50% carbon dioxide in them. These pellets are then heated to 900 degrees Celsius in order to further concentrate the carbon dioxide into a gas. It can then go on to be combined with hydrogen to make a synthetic fuel, similar to crude oil. Despite the simple and easy sounding method, in reality it is a complex process. The plant must take in a massive amount of air because despite there being a lot of carbon dioxide emissions, it still only takes up about 0.04% in the atmosphere. Also, by creating a synthetic fuel from the CO2 concentrate, it isn't necessarily doing much to reduce the amount of carbon. When this fuel is burned, it is simply recycling the carbon, instead of cutting down on how much there is. Scientists claim that it is much cheaper to simply "...keep CO2 out of the air than to capture it once we get it into the air". However, disputing scientists will claim that it's already too late to simply cut down on how much carbon we are emitting, and something must be done to extract it from the atmosphere. Carbon Engineering's CO2 processing plant cannot be seen as the solution for the warming climate, however, it can be seen as an important step in the process of transitioning into a cleaner, more conscious, and energy efficient society. By using and expanding on such plants, we can contribute to bettering and healing the environment.