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$20 Million XPRIZE Takes On Carbon Emissions

Posted by Soulskill on from the leading-capitalism-by-the-nose dept.

An anonymous reader writes: XPRIZE has announced a new, $20 million competition that aims to tackle carbon emissions. They're not looking to reduce emissions, but rather to convert them into something useful. They provide examples: "products like new and sustainable building materials; low-emission transportation fuels; and alternative chemical products that can be used to make everything from clothing and running shoes, to safer, stronger automobiles and breakthrough medicines." Awards will be given for making use of emissions from two different sources: coal power plants and natural gas power plants. "The winning team will convert the most CO2 emissions into the highest value products. To be competitive, teams will have to make the business case for their approach as well as minimize their use of energy, water, land, and other inputs that have consequences for the environment."

2 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Solution by Anon-Admin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "products like new and sustainable building materials; low-emission transportation fuels; and alternative chemical products that can be used to make everything from clothing and running shoes, to safer, stronger automobiles and breakthrough medicines."

    Hemp sequesters more CO2 than almost all other plants at 22 tons per Hectare.

    From it you can make

    Building Materials
    Diesel fuel
    Cooking oil
    Clothing
    Shoes
    Paper
    The list goes on!

    From some select strains of the plant you can make lots of different medicines.

    Now that I have provided the answer to your question, I request that you donate the award to the repeal of these stupid drug laws.

  2. Two solutions already being researched... by Layzej · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "A German chemical company, BASF, and a US company, Novomer, are capturing CO2 from power plants or other waste sources, using novel catalysts to make polypropylene carbonate. This plastic can be used for coatings, adhesives, foams and packaging and can replace other plastics in these applications that are currently made from oil. Both companies are moving towards commercial processes. Bayer, another large German chemical company, is also advancing a process to make polyurethane foams using carbon dioxide."

    "A more brute force approach is that taken by the Solar Jet programme in Switzerland, led by Dr Aldo Steinfeld of ETH-Zurich collaborating with Shell. They designed a clever reactor that generates very high temperatures from solar energy to break down carbon dioxide and water, converting them to hydrogen and carbon monoxide. From this mixture they can make kerosene for jet fuel using well-known chemical processes. This is still at an early stage – so far they have made one litre of fuel – but sometimes these high temperature processes are more straightforward to scale up than catalyst-based approaches."

    - http://www.theguardian.com/sus...