Its worth RTFA, I have the impression they scrub it out as a solid, though its not clear. If so that could very much simplify the recompression issue, which is capital and energy expensive. Also, high pressure storage makes containment harder, if its in solid form it should be very simple to bury safely.
1. The reservoir CO2 that ends up in natural gas processing plants is not in sufficiently high concentrations to make gas anywhere near as bad a carbon emitter as coal once combusted
2. New build gas developments, in my part of the world at least (australia), are required to capture and sequester the CO2. I work in the offshore gas industry and we have to design for pumping it back into the reservoir, we can't just emit it anymore.
3. In terms of flaring of gas for oil production where doing something with the gas isn't economical, this practise also has its days numbered, for new facilities especially. Fields with substantial gas pretty much have to do something with it now, which means either piping to shore or liquefying offshore (not done yet, but its getting close)for collection by LNG tanker.
Having a scrubber that is effective at normal atmospheric concentrations is very interesting. As mentioned above, it could be located at a source of readily available clean energy, or run in off-peak hours, using waste electricity that is going to be generated anyway.
I'd be interested to know what form the scrubbedc arbon is in, assuming a solid powder or something similar it could be a lot easier to store than when it has to be compressed for geo-sequestration. That process comrpesses CO2 to very high pressure at considerable energy cost, and due to the high pressure is an escape risk. If it is instead in a stable solid form it should be a lot easier and safer to store it, simple burial for example.
Further benefit is that clean coal etc can at best reduce the amount of new carbon we emit into the atmosphere. That is the first issue to solve, certainly, but its nice to know that someone is working on ways (more efficient than trees) that can pull it out of the atmosphere once there.
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Its worth RTFA, I have the impression they scrub it out as a solid, though its not clear. If so that could very much simplify the recompression issue, which is capital and energy expensive. Also, high pressure storage makes containment harder, if its in solid form it should be very simple to bury safely.
This is true, however:
1. The reservoir CO2 that ends up in natural gas processing plants is not in sufficiently high concentrations to make gas anywhere near as bad a carbon emitter as coal once combusted
2. New build gas developments, in my part of the world at least (australia), are required to capture and sequester the CO2. I work in the offshore gas industry and we have to design for pumping it back into the reservoir, we can't just emit it anymore.
3. In terms of flaring of gas for oil production where doing something with the gas isn't economical, this practise also has its days numbered, for new facilities especially. Fields with substantial gas pretty much have to do something with it now, which means either piping to shore or liquefying offshore (not done yet, but its getting close)for collection by LNG tanker.
Having a scrubber that is effective at normal atmospheric concentrations is very interesting. As mentioned above, it could be located at a source of readily available clean energy, or run in off-peak hours, using waste electricity that is going to be generated anyway. I'd be interested to know what form the scrubbedc arbon is in, assuming a solid powder or something similar it could be a lot easier to store than when it has to be compressed for geo-sequestration. That process comrpesses CO2 to very high pressure at considerable energy cost, and due to the high pressure is an escape risk. If it is instead in a stable solid form it should be a lot easier and safer to store it, simple burial for example. Further benefit is that clean coal etc can at best reduce the amount of new carbon we emit into the atmosphere. That is the first issue to solve, certainly, but its nice to know that someone is working on ways (more efficient than trees) that can pull it out of the atmosphere once there.