{"id":14827,"date":"2024-04-22T15:30:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T15:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1405951"},"modified":"2024-04-22T15:30:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T15:30:35","slug":"3-carbon-capture-technologies-youve-probably-never-heard-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=14827","title":{"rendered":"3 carbon capture technologies you\u2019ve probably never heard of"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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All of us will face the consequences of runaway climate change \u2014 unless, maybe, you\u2019re living in one of Elon Musk\u2019s new <\/span>homes on Mars<\/span><\/a>. But for the rest of us poor souls, tackling global heating is pretty much the top priority. <\/span><\/p>\n

The bad news is we are <\/span>not on track<\/span><\/a> to limit <\/span>global t<\/span>emperatures rising to 1.5\u00b0C  to prevent the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. A new report has also revealed that temperatures in Europe are <\/span>rising twice as fast<\/span><\/a> as the rest of the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

Drastic cuts in emissions are required. We also need to pull out some of the carbon we\u2019ve already put in. While this may conjure up visions of giant, air con-like machines sucking carbon out of the air, carbon removal comes in many forms.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Remove, an Amsterdam-based accelerator programme for carbon removal startups<\/a>, recently unveiled its latest cohort. It consists of 20 early-stage companies championing everything from <\/span>microalgae biorefineries<\/span><\/a> to <\/span>biochar-based concrete<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Some of them are simply weird \u2014 and many, wonderfully simple.    <\/span><\/p>\n

Burying trees underground<\/b><\/h2>\n

A Dutch startup is plotting an obscure but rather straightforward way to ensure that the carbon trees pull out of the atmosphere stays locked away: burying them underground.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trees are great at absorbing huge quantities of CO2, but they release the carbon again when they die and rot. Burying them could fix this problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Underground Forest plans to cut down old spruce trees, dig holes in peat or wetlands, and drive the poles directly into the soil. New trees will be planted in their place.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can permanently remove up to a gigaton [of CO2] per year,\u201d Kees de Gruiter, founder of Underground Forest, told TNW. He sees biomass burial working alongside other carbon removal technologies like <\/span>Direct Air Capture<\/span><\/a> (DAC).<\/span><\/p>\n

De Gruiter says the wooden piles can act as a foundation for houses, much like Venice, Italy, which was built on over 10 million wooden piles over a thousand years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

While biomass burial is largely unproven, it\u2019s nevertheless attracting attention from climate tech investors. One of them, US-based <\/span>Kodama Systems has raised over $6mn from Bill Gates\u2019 Breakthrough Energy to scale its <\/span>biomass burial system<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another budding company, Switzerland-based RECOAL, has developed a way to <\/span>turn waste biomass into \u201cnegative emission coal\u201d for storage in permanent underground deposits.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the available waste biomass worldwide and the possibility to store the coal as a filling material in abandoned mines and gravel pits, the process is highly scalable,\u201d explains the company. <\/span><\/p>\n

While the likes of Underground Forest and RECOAL are looking underground, others have their sights set on the ocean.   <\/span><\/p>\n

Sealife, bro<\/b><\/h2>\n

The ocean is great at sequestering carbon. It has already <\/span>absorbed<\/span><\/a> 30% of the CO2 \u2014  and 90% of excess heat \u2014 emitted by human activities. Organisms living in the sea itself do most of that work. <\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, seagrass \u2014 a type of seaweed \u2014 can remove carbon <\/span>30 times faster<\/span><\/a> than a rainforest. The UN once called it a \u201csecret weapon in the fight against global heating.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Several <\/span>projects<\/span><\/a> have attempted to grow seagrass with varying degrees of success. One problem is that farming by hand on the seafloor isn\u2019t that easy. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why <\/span>Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering<\/span><\/a> is working on a way to plant and manage seagrass fields using \u201ccutting-edge robotics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Details are scant at this point. \u201c[We are] currently in stealth,\u201d the startup says on its <\/span>Instagram<\/span><\/a>.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Another innovative approach has emerged in the UK. London-based startup Blusink is trying to kill two birds with one stone \u2014 perhaps literally. The company has developed apple-sized \u201ccarbon-sinking\u201d pebbles it calls <\/span>\u201cblusinkies\u201d.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Piles of blusinkies are spread on the seafloor where they create habitats for marine organisms like coralline algae, which absorb carbon. Over time the pebbles form so-called \u201crhodolith beds\u201d that act as a carbon sink, locking in carbon for centuries. <\/span><\/p>\n

But the little pebbles have another trick up their sleeve: they\u2019re composed primarily of calcium oxide, the main ingredient in lime. When in contact with this chemical compound, which the company sources as waste from the construction industry, carbon dioxide mineralises into solid carbon.    <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur production and operation costs are extremely low compared to DAC and other technologies,\u201d the company\u2019s founder, <\/span>Lorena Neira Ram\u00edrez, told <\/span>TNW. She estimates Blusink can remove carbon at a cost of <\/span>\u20ac180 per ton. To put that into perspective, DAC unicorn Climeworks currently removes carbon at a cost of <\/span>\u20ac1000-1300 per ton<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike seagrass carbon capture projects, Blusink says its pebbles foster the growth of entire ecosystems, not just monocultures. \u201cIt creates environmental benefits well beyond carbon capture,\u201d said <\/span>Ram\u00edrez<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other startups like Italy\u2019s <\/span>Limenet<\/span><\/a> or the Netherlands\u2019 <\/span>Brineworks<\/span><\/a> plan to throw lime dust into the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide and reduce acidity at the same time. (Ocean acidification contributes to coral bleaching.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Key to these efforts is calcium oxide\u2019s natural ability to solidify CO2.<\/span><\/p>\n

Turning buildings into carbon sinks<\/b><\/h2>\n

UK-headquartered startup Calcin8 is tackling the problem the other way around. Rather than capturing CO2 from the atmosphere, it is developing a low-carbon lime to prevent more emissions in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lime is used for a variety of industrial processes, including making cement. However, it is made by superheating limestone, which releases vast quantities of CO2. Current methods for producing 1 ton of lime emit approximately 1 ton of CO2.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Founded in 2021, Calcin8 heats limestone in a kiln powered by renewable energy. When the limestone transforms into lime, the startup\u2019s system captures the released CO2 for sequestration.   <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have rejigged the production process entirely, turning lime into a carbon sponge,\u201d the company\u2019s founder, Behn Mapus-Smith, told TNW. <\/span><\/p>\n

When Calcin8\u2019s lime is used in construction, for example, it will react with CO2 in the air and absorb it \u2014 turning buildings into carbon sinks. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCarbon dioxide removal will only have a meaningful impact if it scales to the gigaton level, which is a huge challenge for everyone involved in the industry,\u201d said Mapus-Smith. <\/span><\/p>\n

While the International Energy Agency (IEA) vehemently <\/span>supports<\/span><\/a> carbon removal technologies as a part of efforts to curb global heating, most of the technologies listed here remain untested on a large scale. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe startups emerging in the carbon removal space will play a crucial role in assisting businesses and governments in achieving their goals of reaching net zero emissions,\u201d said Hans Westerhof, co-founder and managing director of Remove.<\/span><\/p>\n

With almost <\/span>40 billion tons of CO2<\/span><\/a> emitted in 2023 alone, the budding industry has a huge task on its hands. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll hands on deck are needed to achieve the removal scale required to address the climate crisis,\u201d said Westerhof.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of us will face the consequences of runaway climate change \u2014 unless, maybe, you\u2019re living in one of Elon Musk\u2019s new homes on Mars. But for the rest of us poor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}