Capturing & Turning Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Into Fuel, Q&A with EarthTalk

If we already know how to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and turn it into fuel, why aren’t we doing more of it?
–M.N. Daly, Springfield, MA

With recent measurements detecting the highest levels of atmospheric CO2 in human history—and experts warning we have less than a dozen years to turn around our profligate emissions to avoid cataclysmic changes—the time is nigh to start ratcheting down our carbon footprints. One solution that seems obvious but has been slow to get out of the starting gate is scrubbing large amounts of CO2 from the air and recycling it as a feedstock to produce carbon-neutral fuels to power our machines.

We have known how to capture CO2 from the air at large scale since the 1950s, but it wasn’t until the late 1990s that environmentalists started looking to so-called “Direct Air Capture” (DAC) as one of a suite of tools at our disposal for dealing with the greenhouse effect. Since then, researchers have been scrambling to come up with the most efficient ways to capture CO2.

Massachusetts-based start-up Carbon Engineering formed in 2011 in an effort to produce and eventually commercialize DAC technology that can use captured CO2 to make fuel at costs competitive with producing conventional fossil fuels. After several years of research and development and implementation of its technologies at a pilot plant in British Columbia, the company has been able to get the costs of capturing CO2 down to ~$100/ton—six times less than previous models predicted was possible.

Canadian pilot plant in Squamish, British Columbia
Carbon Engineering has proven at its Canadian pilot plant in Squamish, British Columbia that it can suck greenhouse gases out of the air through so-called Direct Air Capture (DAC) and process them into liquid fuels at a cost nearly as cheap as producing fossil fuels.

But it’s what happens next that has environmental advocates jazzed. Carbon Engineering’s solar-powered electrolyzer splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then combines the hydrogen with previously captured CO2 to make carbon-neutral gasoline, diesel or even jet fuel. Assuming a $100/ton cost for capturing atmospheric CO2, the company can produce these eco-friendly fuels for about $1/liter, which is only marginally more expensive than their fossil-fuel counterparts. The hope is that costs will come down to below fossil fuels as demand grows and facilities scale up. Also, as more states follow California’s lead in requiring increasingly significant portions of their fuel mixes to come from “low-carbon” sources, demand for these green alternative fuels will rise and prices will likely drop even more. 

R&D like this isn’t limited to the U.S. Spain’s SUN-to-LIQUID project uses unique solar concentration technologies that combine sunlight with oxygen and atmospheric CO2 to get three times as much energy out of the sun’s rays as existing solar “reactors.” The resulting “synthesis fuel” combines hydrogen and carbon monoxide and could be used to power vehicles or any type of engine equipped to deal with it.

And a team of Swiss and Norwegian scientists wants to put such technologies to use on millions of solar-powered floating islands at sea that could suck CO2 out of the air and turn it into fuel without taking up any land or bothering human neighbors. Such a plan may seem far-fetched, but we need to be open to new idea if we are going to turn the tide on climate change before we reach the dreaded “point of no return.”

CONTACTS: “Atmospheric CO2 hits record high in May 2019”; “Renewable transportation fuels from water and carbon dioxide”; “A Process for Capturing CO2 from the Atmosphere”; “11 million floating solar farms could eliminate carbon emissions from transport”.

EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy Scheer & Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit EarthTalk.

“If We Don’t Protect Nature We Can’t Protect Ourselves” –Harrison Ford

We are facing an emergency resulting from our toxic economic and political system. The way we relate to each other and to nature is destroying Earth’s capacity to sustain life.

Unending economic growth and profits drawn from a planet with limited resources is causing gross inequality, poverty, mass misery, and species extinction.

We are sold an illusion that consumption will bring purpose and happiness into our lives, yet this systemic consumption is threatening our very existence. It is based on unjust and unethical land use and ownership, unsustainable and increasing amounts of debt and enslavement of individuals.

Power and money is concentrated in the hands of the few, while the masses struggle to simply survive. It is causing climate breakdown and biodiversity collapse.

As Greta Thunberg has been saying since the ‘Declaration of Rebellion’ last October 31:

‘We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules. Because the rules have to be changed.
Everything needs to change. And it has to start today.”

So, everyone out there, it is now time for civil disobedience. It is time to rebel.

Edited by Lindford Lowe

Why Climate Change is Worse Than You Think

Climate change is not moving as slowly as we’d like to think. In fact, half of all the damage done through burning fossil fuels has been just over the last 30 years. Unfortunately, every year is now more damaging than the last. The good news is that we are not at a point of no return. While we will never have the same climate we had before industrialization, we can make a positive impact on the future of climate change by taking action now.

David Wallace-Wells is the deputy editor of New York magazine and the author of the international bestseller The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, published in February 2019, which the New York Times called both “brilliant” and “the most terrifying book I have ever read.” While the real truth about climate change can be scary, it’s a more important conversation than ever. Throughout our talk, David shares the history of climate change and the three major issues at hand: speed, scope, and severity.