Carbon+Capture+Tech

**Carbon Capture Technology** The Problem Every day our atmosphere is heated up by the sun, which keeps earth from becoming a giant iceball and makes it a generally nicer place to live. Greenhouse gasses help this process becuase they trap heat, so with out them all the heat form the sun would hit earth and just bounce off. Without Greenhouse gasses, scientists believe that the earth would constatly be -18 degrees celcius, or about 0 degrees farenheit(Lenntech). However, becuase of over production of these Greenhouse gasses by humans too much heat is being retained and making our planet warm up at an alarming rate. Here's another, far simpler and more enjoyable, way to explain global warming. media type="youtube" key="zyTm_0D0uS8" height="344" width="425" One of the main Greenhouse gasses is Carbon Dioxide, or CO 2. Like all molecules, CO 2 has a frequency wavelength at which it resonates. Light from the sun hits earth, and bounces off as infared radiation with a wavelength of about 4,000 nanometers. 4,000 nanometers just happens to be the resonating frequency of CO 2, which means that CO 2 absorbs infared radiation very well. This absorbed radiation causes the CO 2 to enter an excited unstable state, and the only way for it to regain its stability is to release the energy it absorbed. Some of this energy will go into space, but the rest of it will come back down to earth and then bounce back and be reabsorbed. Usually this process is slow enough that it doesn't effect the planet dramaticlly, but now that there is an overabundance of CO 2 and other Greenhouse gasses the earth is holding in far more energy than it loses and this is causing a dangerous shift in global climates([]).

The Solution Despite what the video above said, there is a solution available today. Carbon Capture technology is able to take CO 2 from the air and isolate it so that it may be transported and either quarintined or put to a different use. Becuase CO 2 is distributed globally this device would, for example, be able to capture the carbon produced by a car in tokyo from iceland. This is so important because until now it was impossible to recover carbon from mobile sources (surprisingly, the industrial sized carbon scrubbers attached to the back of cars trend never caught on), and mobile sources, according to Kurt Zenz House and alliance Bernstein, accounts for roughly half of all CO 2 production.

How it works The device uses a series of Chemical reactions to isolate CO 2 from the air. A fan forces air into the tower structure which is filled with NaOH. The NaOH combines with the CO 2 in a chemical reaction and makes Na 2 CO 3 and H 2 O (water). Then both the water and Na 2 CO 3 are put into an area with Na 2 O and TiO 2 which react with both the water and Na 2 CO 3. The reaction with NaCO3 occurs at 840 degrees Celcius and the "recipe" looks like this, 5Na 2 O and 3TiO 2 + 7Na 2 CO 3 = 3(4Na 2 O and 5TiO 2 ) + 7CO 2. For water the reaction takes place at about 100 degrees clecius and looks like this, 3(4Na 2 O and 5TiO 2 ) + 7H 2 O = 14NaOH + 5Na 2 O and 3TiO 2. This process isolates the CO 2 while constantly replenishing the chemicals neccesary to create these reactions, using about 105.2 k/j to cause the reactions. For a more accurate, thourogh, and complex explanation refer to this slideshow by David Keith from the University of Calgary at []


What do we do with it now? That is an important question, because we now have all this CO 2 that we have no use for, and if we don't find some place to keep it the CO 2 will go back in the air and all our work will be for nothing. There are a few ways to deal with this refuse Carbon Dioxide. The way that this is currently done is by injecting the CO 2 into geological formations such as oil and natural gas wells. These formations are able to CO2 for an almost indefinate amount of time as they did with the natural gas and oil, and they have the added effect of pushing the natural gas and oil to the surface so as to make the oil field more economical for a longer period of time. However, this method does not actually deal with the problem of the CO 2, it just puts the CO2 in a place where it can't do any damage Two scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, F. Jeffrey Martin and William L. Kubic Jr., have come up with something called project "green freedom". This idea would have air run over a liquid form of potassium carbonate that would capture the carbon, and then the carbon would go through a series of chemical reactions to return the CO 2 to a state in which it is combustable, such as gasoline. There is one major problem though, Chemical reactions must remain balanced so you would get a gallon of fuel for roughly the same amount of energy as you get out of a gallon of fuel. That means that for CO 2 -gas plants to be functional we must use extreme amount of renewable energy to run them, something that is currently our of our reach. However, in the future we may still be using cars that run on conventional fuel, but do not cause the environmental damage they do today. A Natural Carbon Capture Solution, Terrestrial Sequestration Just like all natural objects in our environment CO 2 has a vital role. The Carbon Cycle is essential for life on our planet and is explained by my peers here. If we are able to properly manage vegetation and soils we can remove significant amounts of CO 2 from the atmosphere in a natural and reusable system. Currently these naturally occuring Carbon sinks cause 4-14% of Carbon absorbtion. These techniques not only involve the preservation of plant matter to inject carbon into the soil, but also focus on managing farming in order to efficently have the crops absorb Carbon. For example, if farmers were to use more conservative tilling methods then it would have the benefits of preserving micoaggregates in the soil which research shows may turn up to 40% the Carbon within the soil into a chemically resistent Carbon that is less likely to bond and become CO 2, and would reduce wind and water erosion of the crop lands allowing better nutrient regeneration, increased crop yields, and increase the soils water holding ability. Both results either directly or indirectly reduce the atmospheric CO 2 levels. Perhaps most importantly, these techniques can be implimented immediately to help offset global CO 2 production (Post).
 * The Current way, Geological Sequestration
 * A New Method, Turning Carbon Back into Fuel[[image:carbonscience2.jpg width="321" height="221" align="right"]]

However, this is not perfect and has its downsides. Much of the currently occuring terrestrial sequestration is forest regrowth which is not soil sequestration but Biomass which will slowly return the Carbon to the atmosphere. Also, due to the increased costs of these methods (new training and equipment) economic incentives will probably be necessary to impliment these techniques. Despite these downsides, terrestrial sequestration will probably be needed to help offset CO 2 related Global Warming as new methods and Technologies are developed (Post). This is just one of many ways that we may naturally use the captured carbon for a good cause. Another exicting idea is using CO 2 to fertilize the oceans.

Important note: The Problem of Global warming is caused by far more than just CO 2 emissions to assume that we can put up a few towers, plant some more trees and then just call it a day is a destructive and dangerous path. Our reckless use of fossil fuels in the past is what brought us so dangerously close to the edge and if we don't learn from our mistakes we are bound to repeat them in another place and time. The only real longterm solution is to change our habits and find ways to ensure that we never make such a bumbling mistake as this again. We live on earth and until further notice its all we have to live on. If we don't take better care of it now then we may not have a future to worry about. rss url="http://feeds.livescience.com/livescience/environment" link="true" number="10" Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/science/19carb.html?_r=1 http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12727 http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977486271 ^ http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/fake-plastic-trees-solve-climate-change.php ^ http://www.livescience.com/technology/070501_carbon_capture.html ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/31/carbonemissions.climatechange^ http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/project-earth/explores/carbon.html - Discovery Channel, 2008 ^ http://www.ucalgary.ca/~keith/AirCapture.html - David Keith ^ http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recs2001/enduse2001/enduse2001.html [|NETL Carbon Sequestration] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7584155.stm ^ [|'Emissions-free' power plant pilot fires up in Germany] http://www.lenntech.com/hazardous-substances/carbon-dioxide.htm http://www.pa.msu.edu/sci_theatre/ask_st/083194.html http://www.ucalgary.ca/~keith/Misc/AC%20technology%20Dec%202008.pdf Wilfred M. Post, American Institute Biological Sciences, 2004