The Complex World of Carbon Capture Technology

4 months ago

Everyone is partaking though this devastating period of climatic change as we witness drought, hurricane, flooding, and famine, and we face the impact of global warming caused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases direly.

As we all look to solve this climate problem, scientist were able to come out with the innovation called carbon capture which sucks out the CO₂ in the air but while this looks like a breakthrough, if it is done wrong, it can even make the climate change worse. First, let's understand how climate change is occurring.

When factories burn fossil fuels for energy, they release carbon dioxide which causes global warming which leads to climate change. Climate change became a major issue during the industrial revolution and has been a problem ever since. See burning of fossil fuel like filling a jar of water where the more fossil fuel we burn, the more CO₂ is released into the atmosphere and the more heat is produced. The CO₂ causes a greenhouse effect which warms the planet causing the heat to destroy the earth's environmental system, as well as affecting living organisms as the weather becomes too hot.

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We have seen cases of birds falling from the sky as a result of heat exhaustion, there are also cases where people who live in temperate regions have to resort to air conditioners all day as the heat is increasing. These heat production is likely as result of carbon dioxide release leading to global warming.

To solve this, scientists are doing a lot such as the creation of carbon capture prototype power plant that captures carbon dioxide. One prototype is found in Iceland, and this prototype uses geothermal power to spin fans which uses electrolysis to collect CO₂ and push out clean air through the other side while CO₂ is liquified and stored into porous rocks. There are other prototypes to capture carbon dioxide such as using water and potassium hydroxide chemical reaction to get CO₂ from the air.

While these prototypes require energy, there is the use of train to absorb carbon dioxide but while scientists are still working on this, if it goes wrong, then there can be problems. The train prototype works without much energy use as an electric motor that generates electric current is attached to the wheels of the train and the electric current is produced anytime the train breaks helping it to charge a carbon capture system that captures carbon instead of releasing steam and carbon dioxide.

The air enters the carbon capture and Quinone binds to the CO₂ that flows through the car and it releases clean air with no CO₂. When ht train stops, the electric current is reversed so as to collect the Carbon dioxide. So the next time you might be entering a train, you might be entering one with a carbon capture panel in it without knowing.

You can then ask why we really need carbon capture? According to the IPCC, in order to keep global arming at 1.5 to 2 degree increase by 2100, then 25% of earth's energy would have to go towards carbon capturing else earth will not be habitable but while we might see it as a fix some people do not see it as a fix. Also we need to know that most of this technology are still in the prototype phase. Some people believe that carbon capture is just a distraction and it has been debated a lot and even debated in the COP28.

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The concern with carbon capture is why not let us stop emitting carbon dioxide instead of continually emitting carbon and then storing it. The intention of carbon capture is to keep burning fossil fuel and not allow the CO₂ to get to the air. This is expensive and difficult in reality, and if this works, it means we will not need to cut down on carbon emission which is actually what we need.

Most carbon captured plants do not store the carbon dioxide they get, instead they inject it into oil fields so as to find more fossil fuels to burn making it look like it is for personal profit just to release more carbon dioxide into the air.

Carbon capture presents a promising solution to mitigate the effects of climate change, its implementation raises critical ethical and practical questions. The real challenge lies in balancing the continued use of fossil fuels with the urgent need to reduce CO₂ emissions. As we forge ahead, it's crucial to critically assess these technologies, ensuring they contribute meaningfully to our fight against climate change, rather than offering a temporary or superficial fix.