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$20 Million XPRIZE Takes On Carbon Emissions
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."
I question whether there could ever be enough demand for these products to put a real dent in carbon emissions.
There is enormous potential demand for CO2 for use in enhanced oil recovery and fracking. Pump the CO2 down, and it dissolves and mobilizes the hydrocarbons, and displaces them upward. It is better than the water based solutions currently used. Any shale formation capable of retaining methane, can reliably store the CO2. Eventually, most of the CO2 will form stable carbonates with the rock. We just need a system of pipelines to carry the CO2 from power plants to the oilfields. Another option, would be to transport coal or gas to the oilfields, and burn it locally where the CO2 could be put to immediate use, and then build long distance high voltage power lines to population centers.
"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.
VW has a script that converts CO2 to anything you want while you are in testing mode. Does that count?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
"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...