Green Venture Seeks to Turn Back Clock on Carbon Emissions

A project backed by Bill Gates and a Canadian oil baron is attempting to turn back the clock on greenhouse gas emissions by snatching carbon dioxide particles out of thin air. The initiative, by Calgary, Alberta,-based Carbon Engineering Ltd., holds the prospect of powering vehicles using fuel reconstituted from tailpipe emissions, while helping to reduce greenhouse gases. And it comes as policy makers and scientists look at such “carbon-negative” technologies as a potential solution to the challenge posed to industrial growth from limiting emissions.

In November, the last phase of Carbon Engineering’s test facility started up after it began last summer taking carbon dioxide from the air in this picturesque coastal town 40 miles north of Vancouver. A giant fan on the site of a former chemical plant sucks up briny Pacific air and blows it over lye-soaked plastic sheets, which snag carbon dioxide for processing and purification.

Known as direct-air capture, this experimental method of reducing emissions differs from other techniques that focus on carbon absorption at the point of release, typically a power plant or refinery. Critics, though, call it a waste of resources and even some experts who support the concept in theory say it will remain impractical for at least another decade because of the significant cost and technical hurdles.

To capture the same amount of carbon as a smokestack scrubber on a coal plant, a direct-air capture plant would need a site the size of 15 football fields, according to a recent National Academy of Sciences report. That would require a substantial up-front investment in land, construction and materials costs. It also requires more energy—in the form of electricity or natural gas—to operate than comparable carbon capture techniques attached to gas- or coal-fueled power plants.

Fonte: The Wall Street Journal