Interesting article in today’s New York Times concerning carbon capture. The first US commercial carbon capture plant (Heirloom Carbon Technologies) went on-line in California.
This reminds me of an Onion article: “Top 10 Products to Battle Consumerism.”
Kim Stanley Robinson, in The Ministry for the Future, give us so much to think about:
It is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.
― Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future
Great news! We’re going to spend our way out of the climate crisis, and get rich doing it!
The NYT article in a nutshell:
- current capacity: plant can absorb 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, equal to the exhaust from about 200 cars
- current cost: “experts estimate that direct air capture currently costs around $600 to $1,000 per ton of carbon dioxide “
- revenue stream: sell carbon credits to oil companies
- technology: heat limestone to 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit in a kiln powered by renewable electricity, capture the resulting CO2
- energy requirements:
Before, during, and after….
Buzz words:
- carbon dioxide removal (CDR)
- direct air capture (DAC)
- bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS)
Rah Rah Financial analysis here: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/solving-direct-air-carbon-capture-challenge
A more realistic article can be found on Resource Wise.
Basically taking taxpayer money and giving it to large corporations. Isn’t that what got us here?
That is, the volume of air that would need to be processed is 2.3 quadrillion SCF/d or 23 x 1015 litres per year. Looked at another way, the present cost of capture and supply of CO2 is about $1200/ton.
Since 1 barrel of oil on combustion releases about half a ton of CO2 , the price of crude oil should be at least $600/bbl just to cover the cost of DAC. True, the cost will come down in time, but this illustrates the challenge.
Resource Wise
….
Steve Weiss compared DAC to magic beans — an attractive idea but an illusion. The dilute presence of CO2 in air means that DAC is as challenging as trying to recover the salt from a bowl of guacamole.
….
DAC gives fossil fuel companies an excuse to do nothing
about reducing their carbon footprint…
This point is made clear in Ministry for the Future: it’s a shell game. Relying on the integrity of the Saudis to save the planet is a fool’s errand.
This would be like allowing the Mafia to manage toxic waste.
Let’s work some numbers.
How much CO2 is added to the atmosphere each year? According to NOAA:
Metric to imperial: 40B Metric tons => 39.3683B Imperial tons.
So, assuming 0 carbon footprint in its DAC process, this plant mitigates:
(1,000 / 39,000,000,000), or
0.00000026 % of the annual additional carbon, at a cost of $1,000,000.
The WLBOTT Unit Tree
Yesterday we had some guys cut down a dead elm (it died due to the massive ice storm in Austin this past winter). Goodbye, old friend. Although special in many ways, this tree was also very typical. Let’s call it our Unit Tree. It was about 18″ in diameter at the base, and about 40 ft tall. Using the tree chart, let’s eyeball the interpolation (below), and call it 0.95 tons.
How much carbon is in that unit tree (via USDA)?
This is convenient for our analysis, because WLBOTT recently licensed “divide by 2″ technology.
Carbon per WLBOTT Unit Tree: 0.95 * .5 = 0.475 tons (950 pounds). How much sequestered CO2 does that represent?
0.475 tons carbon / 0.27 = 1.759 tons of CO2.
And trees per acre (via OregonMetro.gov)?
Let’s use 150 WLBOTT Unit Trees per acre.
So that’s 150 * 1.759 = 263.85 tons of sequestered CO2 per acre. To match Heirloom Carbon Technologies yield of 1,000 tons per year, we wound need 3.79 acres. For our republican friends, that is 2.87 football fields (with end zones). And, we don’t need to run a kiln at 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit round the clock to grow trees.
[ed. note: an earlier error estimated 14 acres, and we’d hate to waste the research into this lovely 14 acre lot.]
To help you visualize, this 14 acre property recently sold in beautiful nearby Burnet, Texas.
The new owners are approximately six miles from the Burnet HEB.
WLBOTT States the Obvious: plant trees.
An Aside….
A thoughtful article on the history and virtues of minimalism…
Minimalism throughout history
Prior to the era of cheap, industrially-manufactured consumer good plenitude, there was a term for minimalism. It was called life.
David Friedlander
How Much Does a Tree Weigh?
If you are looking for a way to determine the weight of an individual tree, look no further. Below is a volume table that you can use to help you estimate tree weight. It is based on the tree DBH (also known as Diameter) and the total tree height.
How Much Do the Largest Trees Weigh?
While there may be a bit of disagreement over which tree holds the rightful title of “biggest on earth,” it is generally accepted that the largest trees are the largest organisms on earth. Because trees never really stop growing until they die, they can reach unthinkable, titanic mass. So how much do the largest trees in the world weigh? A lot!
General Sherman
General Sherman is the located in Sequoia National Park in California and is believed to be the largest single-stem tree on earth (by volume). The tree comes in at a whopping 4.2 million pounds, and towering at 272 feet high, it is no wonder why this tree weighs so heavily. It is a true behemoth!
Timber Land Investor
The General Sherman Tree
The General Sherman: 4,200,000 lb, or 2,100 tons, or 1,020 tons of carbon. This one tree outperforms the Heirloom Carbon Technologies’ annual DAC output.
Note: The General Sherman is approximately 4421.0526315789473684210526315789 WLBOTT Unit Trees.
This tree has its own Wikipedia page.
