Carbon Capture

Read Time:1 Minute, 27 Second

In the past decade, the U.S. government provided billions of dollars in funding and incentives for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power to cut down on carbon emissions. It has provided comparatively little, however, to capture and remove those emissions from the atmosphere.

“Carbon capture is way behind other technologies in its deployment,” says Ryan Edwards *18, a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering and AAAS Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow in the U.S. Senate, “but we know from study after study that it is one of the key, important technologies we need to meet the world’s climate targets.”

Congress passed a new tax credit in the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act, which created an incentive for companies to capture and store carbon. Majority of studies for a carbon limited future involves capturing and reusing massive amounts of carbons. Developing a pipeline for capturing carbons from a ethanol plant to reuse it in the oil field is a massive step. Construction of pipelines is a tough thing till we know how many gas pipelines get built in the U.S everywhere.

Ethanol plant emissions are 99% carbon dioxide, which can be captured for economically viable price of $20 to $30 a ton. If the government provides a low interest loan upto $6 billion, it would be enough to construct the pipelines says the research analysis. But the government would be repaid over time, and meanwhile some 30 million tons a year of CO₂ could be removed from the atmosphere — an amount equivalent to removing 6.5 million cars from the road. Fossil-fuel companies would make money on the deal as well, producing more oil and increasing American energy security.