What number of methods are there to say that mechanical direct air seize (DAC) of carbon dioxide is a deeply silly thought? Regardless of the quantity is, I’ve in all probability used the vast majority of turns of phrase. So have many others. That, after all, doesn’t cease the fossil gasoline trade, folks that they affect, individuals who simply don’t know any higher and hopeful folks with no STEM capabilities from loving the sector.
And Occidental Petroleum simply confirmed its love in an enormous approach, committing US$1.1 billion to purchase Carbon Engineering, the Canadian-ish DAC agency that arrange store in Squamish, BC a couple of years in the past. On the time, I used to be aggravated that the Canadian authorities was throwing taxpayer’s cash at it, however unsurprised at what number of fossil gasoline corporations had chipped in.
The complete, large, deep size of the Grand Canyon solely has 1,270 tons of CO2 in it.
That motivated me to publish 9 prolonged items assessing completely different points of the know-how and its precise markets, after which wrap them up in a 54-page case research with a foreword by Professor Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford, well-known for his crew’s ongoing work on a state of affairs of 100% renewables by 2050, now masking 143 international locations. I went deeply nerdy on this, rebuilding my mind to be a poor excuse for a chemical engineer, working in moles and reviewing scads of literature on artificial gasoline manufacturing. I’ve a bunch of chemical engineering nerd followers as a result of I each labored up the chemistry and identified that Carbon Engineering was utterly missing in something resembling garments, by no means thoughts ones befitting royalty.
Within the unique sequence, I checked out all the potential use circumstances for the know-how and asserted that Carbon Engineering’s Solely Market Is Pumping Extra Oil. That was, certainly, the headline of that article, and solely a few months later, Carbon Engineering signed a cope with Occidental to do precisely that within the Permian Foundation oil area of the southern USA. Because the engineer behind it, David Keith of Harvard College, made clear in his peer-reviewed publications over a decade in the past, the plan was to use pure fuel to energy a few kilometers of 20-meter excessive, 3-meter extensive followers blowing air by means of dripping carbon-capturing answer, after which to warmth the carbon-rich answer to 900° Celsius to unlock the CO2 so it may very well be captured. Oh, and to energy the 2 completely different carbon seize programs required to seize the half-ton of CO2 from pure fuel per ton of CO2 from the air as effectively.
Keith can also be recognized for his couple of remarkably weak research that discovered that wind vitality — you realize, one of many two greatest vitality success tales and about essentially the most benign type of electrical era we’ve at the moment — wasn’t all that, and his tireless efforts to place a bandaid on world warming by pumping sulfur particles into the stratosphere, ignoring all the different issues with burning large quantities of fossil fuels together with ocean acidification. That he has the ear of so many prosperous and influential folks reminiscent of Invoice Gates continues to perplex me.
Yeah, let’s take a bunch of sequestered carbon in pure fuel, pump it up from underground, burn it to create 500 thousand tons of CO2, and use the ability to seize one million tons of CO2 from the air. Then we’ll pump all of the CO2 underground to sequester it. Appears like a win, doesn’t it? Unfavorable CO2?
Besides, you must ask the subsequent query. The place is there a variety of low-cost pure fuel and a spot to place CO2? Properly, in tapped out oil fields. They typically have pure fuel that’s simply sitting there leaking out of the fracking and shale oil websites in quantities too small to be price piping to markets, however enough for illuminating a fig leaf.
Particularly with the subsequent bit. Tapped out oil wells aren’t empty of oil, they’re empty of simply extractable oil. There’s a bunch of tarry sludge left underground, and CO2 has this helpful property of liquifying tarry sludge. Pump it underground into tapped out oil wells, liquify the sludge, improve the strain and pump the oil out the opposite finish. That’s one of many strategies of enhanced oil restoration (EOR). And it sometimes recovers a lot oil that the CO2 discount claims are utterly bogus, particularly with burning pure fuel to energy the package.
Scale of CO2 issues in comparison with world demand for CO2, chart by creator
What’s with the Venn diagram? Properly, that’s the size of the CO2 within the ambiance proper now, with the size of our historic additions and the size of our annual additions. The invisible dot is our present annual consumption of CO2 as a commodity. Why do I convey this up? As a result of the one greatest marketplace for CO2 at the moment is enhanced oil restoration, a few third of that 230 million tons that any individual pays for yearly.
Desk of all carbon seize and sequestration amenities over one million tons of CO2 per yr by creator
How do I do know that? Properly, it’s as a result of the identical yr I checked out all the vital carbon seize amenities for the previous 50 years based mostly on International Carbon Seize and Sequestration Institute — sure, they’re transparently a fossil-fuel trade lobbying and advocacy group — knowledge and went by means of public data to determine what precisely was what. As I made up my mind out with out a lot effort, Carbon Seize’s International Funding Would Have Been Higher Spent On Wind & Photo voltaic. Giving CCS each potential profit out of the doubt, and burdening wind and photo voltaic vitality with excessive prices and low capability elements, it will have been vastly higher to construct wind and photo voltaic as a substitute.
Claiming that we are able to vacuum CO2 out of the ambiance to cope with the historic and annual downside is specious nonsense, after which utilizing CO2 to pump extra oil so as to add to the issue is including insult to harm.
So yeah, after just about each use for CO2 and the Carbon Engineering technical answer, it was clear that their claims of constructing low-cost plug-compatible artificial fuels have been nonsense and that their solely pure market was enhanced oil restoration.
Oh, wait. They have been claiming one thing apart from the one factor the package was good for? Yeah, and so they nonetheless are. However right here’s the factor. They have been sucking CO2 out of the air at nice energetic costly, considerably like closing the barn door after the horses had fled, if the horses have been numbered within the billions, invisible, tiny, and will fly, after which have been going to make use of electrical energy from someplace to get hydrogen at a lot better energetic expense. After which they claimed that they have been going to create carbon impartial diesel or jet gasoline at but extra energetic expense, and that this was going to be virtuous and cheap.
Comparability of Carbon Engineering plug-compatible artificial diesel to alternate options, chart by creator
Did any of this stand as much as the slightest scrutiny? No, after all not. The desk above was the freight truck comparability, the place it’s far more costly and excessive carbon to make use of their answer in the absolute best case state of affairs the place I gave them each good thing about the doubt than simply placing the electrical energy into electrical vehicles. I did the identical with jet gasoline vs sustainable aviation biofuel, and the comparability was a lot worse.
Be aware the “BC Electrical energy.” British Columbia, the jurisdiction Carbon Engineering has its idyllic Squamish base in, has actually low-carbon electrical energy at 12.9 grams CO2e per kWh. That was used each for manufacturing the hydrogen for Carbon Engineering’s artificial gasoline and the electrical energy for the Tesla Semi in my workup. You’ll be able to’t make artificial fuels from inexperienced hydrogen with out them having carbon money owed which might be multiples of simply utilizing the electrical energy immediately. Just about each jurisdiction on this planet has electrical energy that will multiply that carbon debt above the extent of diesel, normally by a good distance. For example, the USA’s common is 389 grams of CO23 per kWh, 30 instances worse. Carbon Engineering’s diesel would have had a CO2 load 16 instances that of diesel on the typical USA grid electrical energy.
Nobody goes to purchase artificial fuels constituted of direct air seize and hydrogen as a result of there are decrease carbon, less expensive alternate options. And but, that is the declare Occidental is making, per the press launch.
“The U.S. oil producer goals to construct about 100 vegetation utilizing direct air seize (DAC) know-how that strips carbon dioxide (CO2) from the ambiance to bury underground or to be used in making merchandise reminiscent of concrete and aviation gasoline.”
“About” is a enjoyable phrase, isn’t it? However let’s faux that they’re going to construct 100 of Carbon Engineering’s vegetation along with the one which they’re constructing the Permian Basin for enhanced oil restoration. That must be “about” 100 million tons of CO2 captured from the air yearly, with one other 50 million tons created from burning pure fuel. Certain.
Per the press launch, 30 of these amenities shall be in-built Kleberg County, Texas. Remarkably, that county has a variety of tapped out oil wells. I’m wondering what Occidental goes to do with 30 enhanced oil restoration machines burning pure fuel in that county?
Properly, they’ll be harvesting the USA’s Inflation Discount Act turbocharged 45Q tax credit for carbon seize and sequestration after all, and sharing within the largesse of US$4.5 billion to arrange a CCS hub within the area. After I was at a convention a couple of years in the past the place certainly one of Carbon Engineering’s engineers was on a panel, they let slip below gentle questioning that the corporate was going to be receiving US$250 per ton of CO2 from a few governmental tax credit for his or her enhanced oil restoration. Looks like that financial and local weather madness is constant.
The US$1.1 billion buy worth doesn’t appear so huge now. Occidental will in all probability be capable to harvest that and the prices of constructing the partitions of followers powered by pure fuel immediately from taxpayers with out passing go. A lot of the oil that they pump as much as proceed to make the local weather disaster worse shall be pure revenue. Who couldn’t want taxpayer funded earnings upon a significant oil agency?
And who couldn’t want an oil-soaked however very profitable exit from a startup for Invoice Gates and Breakthrough Vitality Ventures, early buyers in Carbon Engineering? In any case, their total goal is to place cash into local weather options. Isn’t it? Anybody? Bueller? Anybody?
I do not like paywalls. You do not like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Right here at CleanTechnica, we applied a restricted paywall for some time, nevertheless it all the time felt fallacious — and it was all the time robust to resolve what we should always put behind there. In idea, your most unique and finest content material goes behind a paywall. However then fewer folks learn it! We simply do not like paywalls, and so we have determined to ditch ours.
Sadly, the media enterprise remains to be a tricky, cut-throat enterprise with tiny margins. It is a endless Olympic problem to remain above water and even maybe — gasp — develop. So …
