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Aโ๏ธ471-wordโ๏ธ3-minuteโ๏ธread
Environmental purists often oppose the various strategies to capture and/store carbon. They view it as โcheatingโ and insist we must solve the problem by reducing emissions, which according to them, can only be achieved by eliminating the use of fossil fuels.
๐ก๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ณ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ต: it will take at least 100 years before fossil fuels are no longer needed. And given how intertwined within most aspects of modern society they are, it could easily take 200 years.
Itโs for this reason Iโm a supporter of all forms of carbon capture and storage technologies. Simply put, if we canโt stop emitting carbon quickly enough - and our track record indicates we canโt โ the next best option is to buy time by finding ways to remove it.
It isnโt that I believe all forms of capture and storage are viable. For example: Direct air capture or DAC is unlikely to ever achieve the cost structures necessary for widescale deployment. Conversely, numerous natural approaches including advanced rock weathering (ARW), ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), and reforestation all show potential.
Another strategy is to store carbon underground. I havenโt focused much on this effort, but I was struck by a recent article that highlighted the first-ever audited account of the amounts of CO2ย that has been globally stored underground from various carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.
The audit was created by a new international consortium of scientists and industrial partners, including the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The audit is being positioned as โunequivocal evidenceโ that CSS is an โessential tool to avoid and remove greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
Iโm not ready to hop on that bandwagon, but the numbers are encouraging;
โถ Since 1996, over 383 million tons have been stored.
โถ Thatโs the equivalent of just over 81 million gas-powered cars being driven for one year.
โถ Globally, since 1996, carbon storage has experienced a 17% annual growth rate.
โถ In 2023, the storage rate hit 45 million tons per annum.
The origin of the capture projects is hard to read in the attached chart, but most of the activity is located in Brazil, Australia, the U.S., China, and the Middle East.
The stats are promising. However, weโre nowhere close to the levels that will be required.
Capturing 383 million tons may sound substantial, but itโs less than 1% of the 41.6 billion tons that was estimated to have been emitted in 2024. And the annual rate of 45 million tons is a mere one-tenth of one percentage.
We need to multiply these results by a factor of 10 to 100. And to do that, it will be necessary to continue to invest and refine the various strategies.
#carboncapture #carbonstorage #emissions #carbonemissions #ccs