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Negative emissions: tech companies invest billions in controversial CO2 capture

2020-10-08T13:50:56.498Z


Despite the Corona kink in CO2 emissions, there is no U-turn in climate protection. US corporations and the International Energy Agency are now promoting the expensive CO2 capture technology.


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Cement plant in Lixhe on the Belgian-Dutch border: the operator Heidelberg Cement is already testing the CO2 separation technology.

Photo: Eric Lalmand / Belga / imago images

Thanks to corona restrictions, home office and travel bans, global CO2 emissions could fall by up to eight percent this year.

Historically, this is the biggest kink in emissions that has ever occurred.

However, its effects are not permanent.

Refineries, coal-fired power plants, and heavy industries still exist.

Their number is even increasing worldwide.

At the same time, however, many countries have pledged to stop blowing CO2 into the atmosphere by the second half of the century at the latest.

These climate goals can no longer be achieved without additional CO2-saving techniques, warns the International Energy Agency IEA.

Despite the growing share of renewable energies, the climate targets are only realistic with new technologies, such as the capture, storage and further use of CO2, explained Fatih Birol, Director of the International Energy Agency at the end of September.

Specifically, it is about the separation and storage of CO₂ under the earth's surface, the so-called CCS technology (carbon capture and storage) and the CO2 separation and use, abbreviated to CCU (carbon capture and usage).

Both technologies are designed to divert the CO2 already in the production process, especially in emission-intensive industries such as steel or cement works - before it reaches the air and the atmosphere through the chimney.

After that, the greenhouse gas can then be transported away as a type of hazardous waste and, for example, stored underground or reused.

However, CCS in particular is controversial because of the underground storage of the gas.

Critics fear CO2 leaks that could be dangerous for people or ecosystems.

Both technologies have so far been very expensive and can often only be financed with generous tax subsidies.

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The company Carbon Cure use excess CO2 to reduce the cement content in concrete.

Photo: John Yanyshyn / CarbonCure

"There is a real CCUS momentum right now," explained IEA Director Birol.

There are a total of 30 new projects and four billion dollars have flowed into the technology in the last few months alone.

Tech giants Microsoft and Amazon are also interested in the technology.

The mail order company Amazon wants to invest two billion dollars in the CCU company "Carbon Cure".

The company announced this a few days ago.

Microsoft is already a partner.

The US company "Carbon Cure" wants to save 500 million tons of CO₂ in the cement industry every year.

To do this, the company recycles excess CO₂ from industrial plants for the production of concrete.

The gas is injected while the building material is being mixed and is converted into limestone through a chemical reaction.

This increases the strength and ultimately also reduces the cement content.

The carbon footprint of cement is particularly bad.

A large part of the climate-damaging CO2 is produced when the limestone is dried.

That is why the industry does not get down from its bad climate balance when using renewable energies.

The only alternative is therefore either to replace the building material or to "suck out" the CO2 emissions.

However, since there are no market-ready alternative products so far, only the "carbon capture" process or the reduction of the cement content in concrete, as the company "Carbon Cure" is trying to do.

A cement plant alone produces up to one million tons of CO2 per year; worldwide, the industry is way ahead of emissions from the aviation industry, which has so far been the focus of climate protectors.

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Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2020-10-08

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