The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, found that global carbon storage capacity was 10 times less than previous estimates after ruling out geological formations where the gas could leak, trigger earthquakes or contaminate groundwater, or had other limitations. That means carbon capture and storage would only have the potential to reduce human-caused warming by 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.26 Fahrenheit)—far less than previous estimates of around 5-6 degrees Celsius (9-10.8 degrees Fahrenheit), researchers said.
“Carbon storage is often portrayed as a way out of the climate crisis. Our findings make clear that it is a limited tool” and reaffirms “the extreme importance of reducing emissions as fast and as soon as possible,” said lead author Matthew Gidden, a research professor at the University Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability. The study was led by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, where Gidden also is a senior researcher in the energy, climate and environment program.
It would actually be simpler to go straight to soot and rebuild the coal beds. Electrolysis to CO followed by reverse Boudouard reaction. EZ.
E-fuel is an important technology of it’s own, because planes basically don’t work without the energy density burning oil has, but stopping the reduction at hydrocarbons has proven a lot trickier.
Now I’m imagining a world where we produce coal in a factory from the air using solar power at peak times in the desert, the send the coal where it’s needed and burn it again later. Literally renewable coal nonsense.
(not a serious proposal btw it just seemed really funny to imagine we’re so addicted to the stuff we start making more just to keep using it)
It will either be fusion or nothing.
Why?
If I’m reading correctly, producing CO at room temp in a sealed vessel would essentially immediately produce soot and more CO2 to pump back through the system?
You need a catalyst and/or slightly elevated temperature for soot formation to actually happen, but yes. Information on what catalysts are the best is actually hard to come by, because this is usually a bad, accidental thing that happens and gums up your blast furnace. It sounds like just iron works to some degree, though.
Looks like gold and silver are the best for producing CO from electrolysis, wonder how they go for making soot
Ah, good thing those are cheap materials, then!