So you know how CO2 is the primary cause of Global Warming? What if you just remove the CO2 from the atmosphere?
This is known as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). There are two general methods in CCS. One is to take the CO2 directly from the coal plants. The other is to take it directly out of the atmosphere. The former is the one currently being employed in several coal plants. The only problem is that it only captures 90% of emissions. This may sound good, but this only slows the rate of emissions – Global Warming will still continue. The second option, to take CO2 directly out of the atmosphere, costs a lot more and may not work at all. A link to the CCS website will be below for those of you who want to learn more.
Method 1 for CCS takes all of the gases released during the coal power process (Nitrogen, Steam, and CO2) and runs them through a chemical filter so that you have one path with just CO2 and another path with all the other gases. Clearly, the filter isn’t 100% efficient, as CCS only captures 90% of emissions. Method 2 has plants that take air from the atmosphere and runs them through a chemical filter. The chemical filter reacts with CO2 and forces it to stick to the filter. THe only problem is that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is less than in power plants, so we need more of these atmosphere absorbing plants. There is a video below for more facts about CCS
This connects to engineering because the CCS directly from the atmosphere feels like someone coming up with a different way to approach a problem (CO2 in atmosphere), and other people applying other concepts (Chemical filters in power plant CCS) to this new idea.
So, the system isn’t perfect but it may get better and may even become profitable
