Carbon Capture Just Got A Whole Lot Cheaper
New technology from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is utterly revolutionary.
Carbon capture has the potential to save our beautiful planet from the Promethean apocalypse. However, for the past few years, it has mostly been an expensive distraction from the changes we actually need to make to halt the devastation of climate change. Right now, carbon capture costs between $250 and $600 per tonne of carbon dioxide, which sounds reasonable until you realise we emit over 35 billion tonnes of the stuff every year! That means that going carbon-neutral via carbon capture will cost us at least $8.75 trillion, or about 40% of the US GDP. Needless to say, that is not a viable solution. However, scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have just created one of the cheapest forms of carbon capture ever, and it promises to spark a revolution.
Their first step is a rather obvious, previously attempted one. Rather than capturing carbon from the ambient air, the scientists have decided to capture it from the source, where it exists in far higher concentrations. This way, the capturing process is far more efficient and cost-effective.
But what makes this technique so special is the way it captures carbon and what the scientists do with it…
