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Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

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41–50 of 198 posts

Re: Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

#41
post #35

I want to be excited about this, but it's capturing CO2 as CO2 gas, not sequestering CO2 in a form that keeps it out of the atmosphere. If you pay a lot of money in process and power to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere or out of exhaust gases and then use it in chemical processes other than ones which sink the carbon into long lasting solid, liquid, or oceanic absorption form you're just burning money and power to make…

Huge amounts of CO2 can be injected into Saline Aquifers

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015WR01...

Capturing CO2 from a power plant, biofuel factory, oil refinery, petrochemical plant or other point source and disposing of it underground is a developed technology. Very little of that is happening because the financial incentives aren't there and the financial incentives that do exist go to carbon sequestration schemes which are low-cost, low-quality and generally not measurable (pay us $ and we won't cut down these trees... for now, let's crush some rocks and apply sand to the beach and hope for the best, ...)

With aquifer injection you can measure the gas going in but there are also questions such as: how long does the CO2 stay there? do you have seismic problems?

This scheme is similar to aquifer injection but is more secure at the expense of requiring unusual rock formations and 25 tons of water for every ton of CO2 captured.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbfix

I think it gets way too much press but assuming energy is available you can build a direct air capture in a place where you have reactive rocks and water.

Re: Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

#42

I would love to see a page on your website where you compare yourselves (in a fair and transparent way) to the best plant that does the same thing. I am not knowledgeable in the field. But there will be some algae or mangroves that get CO2 out of the air. I would love to see that comparison. Incl. the aspect that the plant does not need to be repaired, multiplies on its own, etc.

The problem with plant based sequestration is that it is a net neutral proposition unless you can bury the plants. All the talk about forests being so great(and they are, just not as carbon sinks) ignores the complete lifecycle, which is only as negative as the sustained volume of the forest, assuming you started from just dirt. If that forest ever burns, it's all back in the atmosphere again.

See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioenergy_with_carbon_capture_...

Re: Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

#43
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about building houses and furniture with the wood?

That is typically only sequestering the carbon for 20-50 years. In the end, the house is torn down, or the furniture burned. Very little lasts for more then a century, and basically nothing lasts for more than a millennia. Deep underground sequestration is the only viable strategy if your goal is total CO2 reduction in the atmosphere.

What if you develop an animal that eats the plants, and then when they die they are buried, such that after the decomposition process all that's left is a fossil? I don't see how that could go wrong unless someone digs up the fossils later on for use as a fuel, but that seems like such a ridiculous an unlikely scenario ha ha ha!

Re: Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

#44

Is there a risk that sequestered CO2 gets released later by accident? Have you looked into sequestering it into calcium carbonate? It's extremely stable and harmless to the environment. Just sink it to the bottom of the ocean with all the other sea shells.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbfix

Re: Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

#45
post #35

I want to be excited about this, but it's capturing CO2 as CO2 gas, not sequestering CO2 in a form that keeps it out of the atmosphere. If you pay a lot of money in process and power to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere or out of exhaust gases and then use it in chemical processes other than ones which sink the carbon into long lasting solid, liquid, or oceanic absorption form you're just burning money and power to make…

Could we put them into pods and throw them at Mars so we start dumping Co2 on Mars for Musk's Mars Mushroom Mart! too grow.

Re: Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

#46
post #35

I want to be excited about this, but it's capturing CO2 as CO2 gas, not sequestering CO2 in a form that keeps it out of the atmosphere. If you pay a lot of money in process and power to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere or out of exhaust gases and then use it in chemical processes other than ones which sink the carbon into long lasting solid, liquid, or oceanic absorption form you're just burning money and power to make…

[deleted]

Re: Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

#47
post #35

I want to be excited about this, but it's capturing CO2 as CO2 gas, not sequestering CO2 in a form that keeps it out of the atmosphere. If you pay a lot of money in process and power to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere or out of exhaust gases and then use it in chemical processes other than ones which sink the carbon into long lasting solid, liquid, or oceanic absorption form you're just burning money and power to make…

Huge amounts of CO2 can be injected into Saline Aquifers https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015WR01... Capturing CO2 from a power plant, biofuel factory, oil refinery, petrochemical plant or other point source and disposing of it underground is a developed technology. Very little of that is happening because the financial incentives aren't there and the financial incentives that do exist go to carbo…

Thats only 6,250 gallons of water.. less than a single 10K water truck you've seen everywhere.

THe question is how many tons does this plan to produce over what period?

Re: Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

#48
post #24

Do you have any policy regarding collaboration with the fossil fuel industry? (I'm asking because most past carbon capture projects are actually enhanced oil recovery projects, and the accounting they do for co2 avoided is... sometimes really creative. From what I'm aware Climeworks is not directly collaborating with the fossil fuel industry and does not do EOR, which I think is why they have a relatively good reputa…

See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_flooding

Down in Texas there are places you can drill and get CO2 just like you drill for methane, oil, helium, etc. Since the late 1970s this has been a profitable business without anyone being paid for CO2 disposal.

Re: Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale

#49
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is typically only sequestering the carbon for 20-50 years. In the end, the house is torn down, or the furniture burned. Very little lasts for more then a century, and basically nothing lasts for more than a millennia. Deep underground sequestration is the only viable strategy if your goal is total CO2 reduction in the atmosphere.

What if you develop an animal that eats the plants, and then when they die they are buried, such that after the decomposition process all that's left is a fossil? I don't see how that could go wrong unless someone digs up the fossils later on for use as a fuel, but that seems like such a ridiculous an unlikely scenario ha ha ha!

Or the animals turn out to be delicious and people start coking them.
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