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$100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

xprize.org

41–50 of 469 posts

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#41
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about just buying the oil and putting it into storage somewhere (maybe just buy oil ships with oil in them). This will drive up price of oil for everyone which is the most effective way to accelerate the adoption of renewables. The world spends 6-9bn USD per day on oil (100m barrels at 60-90 USD), maybe we start with spending 1bn per day. Edit: Fixed calculation.

FWIW 100m * 100 = 10bn

Thx

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#42
post #28

Why cant we just plant more trees? Or let the trees we have grow bigger, to soak up all that extra carbon?

Trees definitely need to be part of the solution but unfortunately global potential only revereses a decade of emissions.

I wrote a short piece about it (with sources)[0]

[0] https://carbonremoved.com/blog/trees-are-not-the-answer-to-c...

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#43
post #28

Why cant we just plant more trees? Or let the trees we have grow bigger, to soak up all that extra carbon?

That’s covered under ‘natural’ solutions, also eligible for the prize. All you need to do is develop a plan to scale that economically to gigaton/year capacity and claim your prize! Should be easy, right? So just do it!

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#44
post #32
post #28

Why cant we just plant more trees? Or let the trees we have grow bigger, to soak up all that extra carbon?

We can, how many have you planted? The problem is the space issue and that it takes a decade or two for there to be meaningful carbon uptake. Most land is private so you can't go around planting willy nilly. What's worse is that you are technically not allowed to plant on most public land either, although for small amounts of native species, you can sneak by.

> Most land is private so you can't go around planting willy nilly.

That’s pretty much how we got here, except instead of planting we mined, cut and burnt.

The pathway back is rather harder.

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#45
I wonder how YC backed Prometheus Fuels will stack up. They claimed that they are able to sequester Co2 directly from the air for around 36 USD / ton [0]. If they truly can scale it at that price point, it seems very competitive.

[0]: https://www.prometheusfuels.com/on-the-road/happy-earth-day-...

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#48
post #2

Time to quit my job and become an inventor (actually something I thought was a real thing when I was a kid). My idiot-layman brain says buy it from AirGas or capture from large emitters and pipe it into a geological structures like the do for storing helium. It could probably only get to gigatons if it's worldwide and we have enough geological structures capable of containing it.

Actually what would be really good is instead of looking at carbon capture you could use that invention brain to find solutions to reduce our emissions.

Carbon neutral or negative alternatives to energy production, concrete production, travel (flight), meat and many others would be incredible.

The best emissions are the ones never emitted in the first place.

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#49
post #28

Why cant we just plant more trees? Or let the trees we have grow bigger, to soak up all that extra carbon?

Yeah this seems like the obvious thing.

If everyone stopped mowing their lawns for 20 years and let trees run wild instead, would that make a dent?

What about that plus turn half of our roads into parks?

Anyone got a link to a good open source interactive simulator?

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#50
post #5

Here's my proposal, take that $100M and find a Saudi/Venezuela oil well operator. Give him the $100M in exchange for not pumping $100M worth of oil out of the ground.

I can not-pump 100M of oil in my own back yard. And you wouldn't believe the rate I can not pump it at! But seriously, this is harder than it sounds. Unless you pay him to permanently sequester $100M of oil, I don't see how it would make a difference.

I’ve seen this happen with farm subsidies in the UK where farmers were paid to leave the land alone. However the farmers would choose the crappiest sections to leave alone and production would be unchanged. Profit.
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