Carbon engineering

seannash

I saw this on Vice about a year ago.
They basically suck Carbon out of the atmosphere and create clean fuel from it


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb_8DJF6Hp0


The Canadian government invested 25 million in the company also.


So if this took off, would it stop or delay the march to EV's
Your ICE car could be carbon neutral tomorrow using this fuel

macnab

This sort of theoretical carbon capture hokum is allowing governments to put more and more carbon into the atmosphere, on the promise that they will soon be able to remove it and maybe even go carbon neutral.
It's bull****.
Don't put the pollutants into the atmosphere in the first place and you won't have to remove them, simples.
Prevention is the best cure.

graememk

Simply it's a false economy to do it for cars.

To generate a carbon fuel (easiest one is methane) from electricity and then burn it in a normal combustion engine which is highly inefficient. Then the costs required to transport that fuel.

Other than just using the electricity to power a car.

An argument could be made for vehicles that batteries that aren't appropriate eg New Holland have a methane powered tractor, (it's still a technology demonstrator /concept tho)

And that instance it's prob more efficient to use biogas from a digester to run it.

seannash

graememk wrote: »

Other than just using the electricity to power a car.

(Playing devils advocate here)Install charge points, Overhaul petrol stations, Car companies have to build new cars. Large industries have vested interests in not switching.


A good few arguments could be made to say this might be the best way to get us to where we need to be.


Not sure about the false economy claim

graememk

Don't get me wrong, it's a great technology, it's explained well in Real Engineering's video https://youtu.be/ecxCL84n26g

But the tech is only early days and will take at least a decade or two to get up to a reasonable production rate.

Having them close to a good supply of cheap, renewable electricity source will be important too.

For cars, it won't stop the progress of ev's (and why would you, it's coming if you like it or not)

As the charges etc they need to be built. The majority of car trips are short, I have in-laws that only would travel 10-15 miles a day, if even that. Granted some people travel the country in a day and current tech isn't there for them and that's fine.

It's going to be a great tech for things where batteries aren't and may never be feasible. Planes, backup generators, trains etc.

Getting into vested interests of large companies, that's a whole different story. But if they don't adapt they will get left behind, eventually.

Edit/additional:

The most environmental option is to keep your current car running for a full life, but if you are going to change an EV should be then considered. If it's not feasible, that's fine.

Zenith74

Even if practical, it only addresses CO2 emissions. An equally important issue with ICE vehicles is local emissions, like NOx etc, that we’re just becoming aware of how damaging they are to people’s health.

We need to a stop burning **** and pumping the smoke in people’s faces, simple as that really.

seannash

I completely get the "we need to stop pumping **** into the atmosphere"
But there's a lot of things we need to do and to be honest I dont think that means we will ever do them.


Yes this isn't the best approach but if we dont change (And we might not) surely this is a good idea to solve the issue

macnab

Unfortunately it doesn't solve the issue. It purports to solve one part of the issue ie carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide emissions is a whole world issue as it is one of the causes of global warming. NOX, SOX, CO and other particulate pollutants are local issues, the ones that are killing us and our children, and their children.

kirving

seannash wrote: »

Your ICE car could be carbon neutral tomorrow using this fuel

Bioethanol, E85 is about as close as you can get to carbon neutral in an ICE car.

But while the government initially gave €5k grants and limited duty on the fuel, they changed their tune when they realised they might lose out on some revenue. French and Scandinavian governments actually put the environment first and encourage E85.