| Windturbines for Carbon Sequestration |
| Written by Hank Green | ||
| Saturday, 17 March 2007 | ||
Last week at an American Physical Society meeting, an organization of entrepenuers and university researchers released the their first round of plans to create windmills that would scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
These devices, powered entirely by the wind, would extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then store it in some kind of physical substrate. The details of the plan are completely under wraps, and the official announcement of the plan won't come for a while yet. But our friends over at Environmental Research Web got the scoop (reg. req'd.)
The costs of this carbon sequestration project are also extremely fuzzy, but the researchers have said that the devices could make the world entirely carbon neutral by spending the equivalent of 25 cents extra per gallon of gas. We're taking all of this with a grain of salt, but nonetheless, we're excited for the official announcement. Via: ERW
Comments
(9)
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written by rob , March 18, 2007
Apparently the windmills compress the CO2, extract the oxygen atoms and discharge the carbon as pencils.
Makes sense
written by Tom Konrad , March 18, 2007
Wind power is cheap, but it has a problem with intermittency. But getting carbon out of the atmosphere is not something that is time-sensitive (except on the scale of years), so cheap wind energy is a great way to poer any process for scrubbing carbon. If you were also to hook the wind turbine to the grid, you could draw the power when the wind was blowing while it was needed, but use the wind to sequester carbon when you had sufficient electricity from other sources. This would be a great way to increase the amount of wind on the grid, because you would never have too much power. (as actually happend in Europe a month ago... there was so much wind that electricity was free on wholesale market.. they shut all the coal plants down because they were not needed. This will happen a lot more often as wind penetration increases.)
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written by Phil , March 18, 2007
I'm just not sure how we can beat trees at carbon sequestration.
Navy's been doing this for a long time
written by Mike , March 20, 2007
Navy Submarines use CO2 scrubbers and they work very well. In this case I would have to ask what the physical substrate could be used for after it would absorb no more CO2. Maybe the soda companies could extract it to carbonate their products?
Else?
written by ITPiMP , July 16, 2007
I think there's better ways of using this carbon. Profitable ways! And without changing or charging anything or anyone.
Have too much power.
written by physical access control , September 19, 2007
This would be a great way to increase the amount of wind on the grid, because you would never have too much power.
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written by Beneficial Association , November 05, 2007
Yes, it is a wonderful idea but I don't think that those devices will manage to extract the CO2 from the atmosphere in a considerable way. I don't think that it will be even noticed by the rest of us. But this is just an opinion.I can't wait to see the first results. If it proves that I was wrong then I appologise for not having trusted them.
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written by Carlos , November 05, 2007
Would these carbon turbines make up for the greenhouse gas effect and in time 'heal' the earth's climate and the ozone layer? Carlos Meba
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written by Canal boat holiday , December 17, 2007
How much the technology would cost, however, is not yet clear. Broecker says the largest cost associated with air-capture would arise from releasing the carbon dioxide from the capture material used and recycling any chemicals employed.
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