Recovering from Industrial Overshoot: Thermal Removal of Atmospheric CO2
Presentation Type
Long presentation (faculty/staff) 15-20 minutes
Location
Student Union Event Center, Room 165A
Start Date
28-1-2020 11:35 AM
End Date
28-1-2020 11:55 AM
Presentation Description/Abstract
Humanity will soon overshoot a safe level of atmospheric CO2, if it hasn't done so already. Countries, industries, and the global economy need to dramatically and quickly alter their behavior and technology to avoid this dangerous overshoot, yet this appears unlikely. Direct Air Capture of CO2 represents an insurance policy for society - a way of removing excess atmospheric CO2. I will present an approach to this problem based on thermal physics that cools cubic kilometers of air to extract CO2 as it sublimates. I propose a combination of an efficient heat exchanger, radiative cooling, and refrigeration, all at industrial scale and operated in environments at low ambient temperatures. The most challenging aspect of building a system that could remove 1 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere per year is a power demand on the scale of a nation.
Recovering from Industrial Overshoot: Thermal Removal of Atmospheric CO2
Student Union Event Center, Room 165A
Humanity will soon overshoot a safe level of atmospheric CO2, if it hasn't done so already. Countries, industries, and the global economy need to dramatically and quickly alter their behavior and technology to avoid this dangerous overshoot, yet this appears unlikely. Direct Air Capture of CO2 represents an insurance policy for society - a way of removing excess atmospheric CO2. I will present an approach to this problem based on thermal physics that cools cubic kilometers of air to extract CO2 as it sublimates. I propose a combination of an efficient heat exchanger, radiative cooling, and refrigeration, all at industrial scale and operated in environments at low ambient temperatures. The most challenging aspect of building a system that could remove 1 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere per year is a power demand on the scale of a nation.
Comments
Recovering from Industrial Overshoot: Thermal Removal of Atmospheric CO2 by Ted von Hippel, Sandra Boetcher, Matthew Traum, Farshid Azadian, William Mackunis.