Why Store Carbon Underground When You Can Reuse it In a Chemical?
By Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech
December 4, 2012
December 4, 2012
As scientists, policymakers, environmentalists and industries around the world grapple with the challenge of reducing carbon emissions, much effort is spent on finding ways to do what we have always done with waste – bury it. Various proposals and research projects have focused on storing (or "sequestering") carbon in underground formations.
There’s no doubt many of these carbon sequestration technologies have great promise, but they reflect a continuation of the “old-school” approach to waste. There is, however, a new generation of renewable technologies that are putting a new twist on this age-old problem of carbon waste — carbon recycling.
Companies are working on technologies that will transform waste gases like CO and CO2 from energy intensive industries into fuels and chemicals. So, instead of storing the carbon underground, it will be reused in fuels and chemicals.
In doing so, these technologies reduce overall emissions while at the same time it substitutes carbon from new fossil fuels. By creating a revenue stream from emissions, energy intensive industries finally have a powerful incentive to invest in these technologies.
Technologies are indeed rapidly moving into commercial scales of production. Just a few years ago the potential of using CO2 as a resource was surprising and welcome news in scientific publications. Today we are learning about new technologies that are coming online in real world facilities and are starting to make significant breakthroughs in carbon reuse technology.
Companies that use biological organisms to consume CO2 are advancing in leaps and bounds. Sapphire Energy has opened an impressive biorefinery in New Mexico that will grow algae and refine it into a renewable substitute for crude oil. The process will reuse significant quantities of carbon dioxide.
Companies are working on technologies that will transform waste gases like CO and CO2 from energy intensive industries into fuels and chemicals. So, instead of storing the carbon underground, it will be reused in fuels and chemicals.
In doing so, these technologies reduce overall emissions while at the same time it substitutes carbon from new fossil fuels. By creating a revenue stream from emissions, energy intensive industries finally have a powerful incentive to invest in these technologies.
Technologies are indeed rapidly moving into commercial scales of production. Just a few years ago the potential of using CO2 as a resource was surprising and welcome news in scientific publications. Today we are learning about new technologies that are coming online in real world facilities and are starting to make significant breakthroughs in carbon reuse technology.
Companies that use biological organisms to consume CO2 are advancing in leaps and bounds. Sapphire Energy has opened an impressive biorefinery in New Mexico that will grow algae and refine it into a renewable substitute for crude oil. The process will reuse significant quantities of carbon dioxide.
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