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Launch HN: Noya (YC W21) – Direct air capture of CO2 using cooling towers

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Re: Launch HN: Noya (YC W21) – Direct air capture of CO2 using cooling towers

#132

Post by jsantos511 »

nmeyer wrote: post #131

You may want to talk to the Infinite Cooling team out of MIT too. They do water reclamation on top of cooling towers to reduce water usage. Could be a nice channel partnership between you all! Happy to make the connect.

Thanks for bringing up the idea! We've been in contact with Maher and Karim already. Love what they're working on.

Re: Launch HN: Noya (YC W21) – Direct air capture of CO2 using cooling towers

#133

Post by codecamper »

jfk13 wrote: post #89
codecamper wrote: post #44

Have you heard about George Church's idea? He says it's possible to modify the dna of cyanobacteria so that they become immune to their natural predator: the cyanophage. Apparently cyanobacteria consume an incredible amount of CO2 every year, but then right away release it again after the cyanophage kills them. Seems like a potentially workable idea, but I have not heard him give the details anywhere. He is at MIT &…

What do you anticipate will happen if we make cyanobacteria "immune to their natural predator", leading to their unchecked proliferation...?

Hilarious that nobody upvoted my post. I've been looking into the CO2 problem for more than 10 years & this seems like one of the most promising ideas... because it sounds possible to pull off.

Yes, I have the same question for Dr. Church. How does he plan to control their population? Maybe something like this:

https://news.mit.edu/2015/kill-switches-shut-down-engineered...

Re: Launch HN: Noya (YC W21) – Direct air capture of CO2 using cooling towers

#134

Post by jsantos511 »

codecamper wrote: post #44

Have you heard about George Church's idea? He says it's possible to modify the dna of cyanobacteria so that they become immune to their natural predator: the cyanophage. Apparently cyanobacteria consume an incredible amount of CO2 every year, but then right away release it again after the cyanophage kills them. Seems like a potentially workable idea, but I have not heard him give the details anywhere. He is at MIT &…

Sorry for the big delay in getting back to you!

I'll look more into this - this isn't a solution I'm familiar with. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for your kind words and dedication to solving this problem.

Re: Launch HN: Noya (YC W21) – Direct air capture of CO2 using cooling towers

#135

Post by jsantos511 »

jack_riminton wrote: post #76

Great idea but I feel the key to making it a viable endeavour would be a Carbon tax that makes it worthwhile

Carbon taxes will absolutely help in solving this problem, and we hope regulation gets enacted to help incentivize people to think and act differently when it comes to their carbon emissions.

Re: Launch HN: Noya (YC W21) – Direct air capture of CO2 using cooling towers

#137

Post by ars »

jfk13 wrote: post #89
codecamper wrote: post #44

Have you heard about George Church's idea? He says it's possible to modify the dna of cyanobacteria so that they become immune to their natural predator: the cyanophage. Apparently cyanobacteria consume an incredible amount of CO2 every year, but then right away release it again after the cyanophage kills them. Seems like a potentially workable idea, but I have not heard him give the details anywhere. He is at MIT &…

What do you anticipate will happen if we make cyanobacteria "immune to their natural predator", leading to their unchecked proliferation...?

Something else will eat them. Even a human could.

Doesn't matter what eats them, after digestion, the CO2 is back in the atmosphere.

If you actually want to do this, you can't just leave them in the wild, you have to breed them in massive quantity and bury them. Same as growing a tree and burying it.

Re: Launch HN: Noya (YC W21) – Direct air capture of CO2 using cooling towers

#138

Post by codecamper »

ars wrote: post #137
jfk13 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you anticipate will happen if we make cyanobacteria "immune to their natural predator", leading to their unchecked proliferation...?

Something else will eat them. Even a human could. Doesn't matter what eats them, after digestion, the CO2 is back in the atmosphere. If you actually want to do this, you can't just leave them in the wild, you have to breed them in massive quantity and bury them. Same as growing a tree and burying it.

George Church figured they'd just collect and then sink. not much life down there and once it is deep enough, it might be deep enough to perma-sequester.
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