Stanford Researchers: Save the local weather by turning methane into carbon dioxide!!!
Visitor no schist Sherlock by David Middleton
Stanford Information Service
MAY 20, 2019
Stanford researchers define imaginative and prescient for worthwhile local weather change answer
A seemingly counterintuitive method – changing one greenhouse fuel into one other – holds promise for returning the ambiance to pre-industrial concentrations of methane, a strong driver of worldwide warming.
BY ROB JORDAN
Stanford Woods Institute for the Atmosphere
A comparatively easy course of may assist flip the tide of local weather change whereas additionally turning a wholesome revenue. That’s one of many hopeful visions outlined in a brand new Stanford-led paper that highlights a seemingly counterintuitive answer: changing one greenhouse fuel into one other.
The examine, printed in Nature Sustainability on Might 20, describes a possible course of for changing the extraordinarily potent greenhouse fuel methane into carbon dioxide, which is a a lot much less potent driver of worldwide warming. The thought of deliberately releasing carbon dioxide into the ambiance could seem shocking, however the authors argue that swapping methane for carbon dioxide is a major web profit for the local weather.
“If perfected, this expertise may return the ambiance to pre-industrial concentrations of methane and different gases,” mentioned lead creator Rob Jackson, the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor in Earth System Science in Stanford’s Faculty of Earth, Vitality & Environmental Sciences.
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Stanford Information Service
My first thought was: No schist Sherlock.
Determine 1. Gasoline kicks @$$, wind breaks even.
Actual Clear Vitality
My second thought was: The expertise is already pretty properly perfected.
However then, I learn extra of the Stanford Information Service article…
Most eventualities for eradicating carbon dioxide usually assume tons of of billions of tons eliminated over many years and don’t restore the ambiance to pre-industrial ranges. In distinction, methane concentrations may very well be restored to pre-industrial ranges by eradicating about three.2 billion tons of the fuel from the ambiance and changing it into an quantity of carbon dioxide equal to a couple months of worldwide industrial emissions, in keeping with the researchers. If profitable, the method would get rid of roughly one-sixth of all causes of worldwide warming thus far.
Methane is difficult to seize from air as a result of its focus is so low. Nevertheless, the authors level out that zeolite, a crystalline materials that consists primarily of aluminum, silicon and oxygen, may act basically as a sponge to absorb methane.
Stanford Information Service
They’re referring to the insane thought of changing atmospheric methane straight into carbon dioxide, with out utilizing it as a gasoline.
The entire course of may take the type of a large contraption with electrical followers forcing air by tumbling chambers or reactors stuffed with powdered or pelletized zeolites and different catalysts. The trapped methane may then be heated to kind and launch carbon dioxide, the authors counsel.
Stanford Information Service
They even insist that this can be “worthwhile”… WTF?
A worthwhile future
The method of changing methane to carbon dioxide may very well be worthwhile with a value on carbon emissions or an acceptable coverage. If market costs for carbon offsets rise to $500 or extra per ton this century, as predicted by most related evaluation fashions, every ton of methane faraway from the ambiance may very well be price greater than $12,000.
A zeolite array concerning the dimension of a soccer subject may generate tens of millions of a 12 months in revenue whereas eradicating dangerous methane from the air. In precept, the researchers argue that the method of changing a extra dangerous greenhouse fuel to 1 that’s much less potent may additionally apply to different greenhouse gases.
Stanford Information Service
How the frack may there be “market costs for carbon offsets”? There isn’t any marketplace for “carbon offsets.” The one means that there may very well be a marketplace for “carbon offsets,” can be if governments imposed such a “market” by a carbon tax… Which actually isn’t a market.
That is what a $500/ton tax on carbon dioxide emissions would do to generally used gasoline costs.
Determine 2. What a $500/ton carbon dioxide tax appears like. Extrapolated from Assets’ carbon tax calculator.
A tripling or quadrupling of vitality costs by a $500/ton carbon dioxide tax would ostensibly make it “worthwhile” to suck CH4 out of the air flip it into CO2 and bury it within the floor. That’s simply fracking psychological.
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