Record-Cheap Carbon Capture Technique Discovered by PNNL Scientists
Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have discovered a new and record-cheap method to capture carbon dioxide from power plants and factories.
According to Bill Gates, industrial processes are responsible for 31% of total greenhouse gas emissions and electricity generation accounts for 27%, dwarfing the 16% of total greenhouse gas emissions that comes from the transportation sector.
The new technique costs $39 per metric ton and is the cheapest technique for this kind of carbon capture ever reported in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The new technique is more affordable than current state-of-the-art technology for capturing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, which costs $57 per metric ton.
The new method can be applied to a wide range of industrial processes, including making iron, steel, cement, fertilizer, pulp, and paper, and bioenergy, which could all reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
PNNL's technique removes carbon dioxide at the source, rather than vacuuming it out of the air, and it uses only 2% water, compared to as much as 70% in previous technologies.
The process pumps 4 million litres of liquid per hour, is cheaper because it takes less energy to boil a smaller amount of water, and removes 90% of the carbon dioxide ultimately resulting in a net reduction of 87% on a per-megawatt net power generation basis.
While a small percentage of carbon dioxide can be used to make products like methanol, the majority will need to be stored underground, which is generally cheaper than capturing carbon dioxide in the first place.
Todd Schaef, a scientist at PNNL, believes it is necessary to sequester the carbon dioxide that has already been emitted and will continue to be emitted until a transition to more climate-conscious processes can be made.
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