Carbon Capture 101

WHY DO WE NEED TECHNOLOGY TO CAPTURE CARBON?

Large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are released into Earth’s atmosphere when we do things like burn fossil fuels and produce cement. CO₂ creates a heat-trapping blanket across our entire atmosphere, meaning that as our activities release more and more CO₂, the trapped heat accumulates, and Earth becomes warmer and warmer. While some CO₂ is absorbed in the soil and ocean, too much has detrimental effects. And because human activities have emitted CO₂ past levels which can be managed by nature, additional technology that captures CO₂ directly from the ocean and from the atmosphere has become necessary to help eliminate the growing dangers of continuously increasing CO₂ (and other greenhouse gas) emissions.

45% of CO₂ emissions stay directly in the atmosphere, contributing to the continued warming of our planet.

One technology-facilitated means of carbon sequestration is through direct air capture (DAC). This method removes atmospheric CO₂ molecules right from the air. But traditional DAC technology has one significant shortcoming: it requires a lot of energy and is thus not effective at increasing the net sequestration of CO₂ (i.e. it does not remove significantly more carbon from the air than it adds).

Alternatively, Earth RepAIR’s distributed direct air capture (DDAC) technology operates at ambient conditions, meaning it does not have to be heated or pressurized, drastically reducing energy usage, emissions, and costs, and increasing the net sequestration of CO₂.

DDAC is just one component of a two-part system. The other is a rapid mineral carbonation (REACT) process that converts the captured CO₂ into a stable, solid mineral by carbonating alkaline mineral residue from processed industrial waste materials.

“In essence, we’re converting carbon dioxide from the air into carbonate minerals that can be upcycled into construction materials, all under ambient conditions.” –Bu Wang

Industrial waste—like coal ash, steel slag, and cement kiln dust—can pollute the air, waterways, soil, groundwater, and drinking water in nearby communities when it’s disposed of in surface impoundments, landfills, or nearby waterways. This is a big problem: coal ash, for example, is the second largest waste stream in the U.S. after municipal garbage.

Utilizing landfilled mineral waste materials from decades of industrial operations enables Earth RepAIR to sustainably reach an unprecedented scale of CO₂ sequestration. Not only can the carbonate residue recovered from this waste be used to reliably store CO₂ for more than 100 years, but reducing the volume of waste helps curb further pollution, improving the health and safety of communities near waste sites.

As an added benefit, one of its potential uses may be as a supplementary cementitious material. This could be significant: cement is the main bonding agent in concrete, which makes up the majority of the world’s roads, bridges, dams, buildings, and other structures.