Live data from Hacker News

Carbon Removal Technologies

carbon.ycombinator.com

401–410 of 682 posts

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah - no. Coal CO2 emissions are almost double natgas' [1]. While it is true that natgas is mainly CH4, a highly potent GG, its atmospheric lifetime is about 8 yrs. Further, the only way the methane would be getting into the air is via leaks in upstream/midstream processes. Today, hardly any of this leaks (EPA estimates leak rate of 1.4%). Now addressing fracking, the drilling and fracturing process are the cause of…

Baseless? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13053040

That study starts with the ridiculous assumption of a 3.6 -7.9% leak rate in fracked gas. By their own admission, the data they used was spotty for leak rates during drill completion, and transport. Study is also outdated (2011) with regards to technological improvements of frack wells.

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#402
post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> wipe out all shellfish species worldwide Look you raise good points but this is nonsense. The Earth has had far higher CO2 concentrations for geological periods and there’s no fossil record suggesting shellfish all died. This kind of Trumpian rhetoric just hands ammo to the skeptics.

Right, the ones that exist today should be evolved for today’s environment. Higher acid levels should mean most of the average stock will die, and the mutants which survive will eventually adapt. Think of the George Carlin skit - the planet will be fine, just we humans and everything we know will be gone.

I agree with your main point, but I'm pretty sure that evolution and adaptation work for humans too and there are an awful lot of human beings.

None of this is to discount the potentially severe (unknown, scary) risks, but I don't think human extinction is really in play due to a warming climate. The most serious risk I'm aware of is that high CO2 content in the atmosphere will interfere with human respiration. Evolution will handle this, just like it handled human beings living in the Himalayas.

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#403
post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Globe-scale carbon sequestration would increase demand for olivine massively. I ask too much, I know, but first-semester freshman macroeconomic comments drive me nuts. As demand increases, and as production rises to meet it, the entire economics of the production chain changes. Purchases amortize more quickly. Processes improve. Infrastructure gets more fully utilized. The effects of mass production are felt all th…

Your post is utterly and needlessly condescending. Exactly what prompted you to respond to the other poster like that?

> Exactly what prompted you to respond to the other poster like that?

When did you stop beating your wife?

More to the point, I think "condescending" might not be the word your after, and I replied because OP's was a low-effort comment based on a silly platitude. It was facile, and had no depth. Its "question" was rhetorical, or at least phrased rhetorically, in that the implied answer ("It can't cope; prices have to rise.") shores up the point hinted at in the first sentence. If it wasn't, if OP really couldn't see that the very first complicating answer is "supply might just rise," then it didn't contribute. If the answer is just "there's lots of olivine," or "there's hardly any olivine," those are a Google search away. OP should have done their homework.

People ask questions like the OP's in order to score points, not to contribute to anyone's understanding. A lot of people here try to do more. I try to do more. Even in my allegedly "condescending" post, I listed the first couple of things to think about, in an effort to maybe steer the OP to more valuable contributions in the future. (OP seems to have come away unscathed by experience.) Most of the time, I remain silent.

Even theothermkn sometimes nods.

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#404
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Gustaf from YC. I wrote the first Carbon Removal RFS. Planting tree is actually a great carbon removal technology. Unfortunately most forest owners in the world don't know or don't have incentive to care the about the carbon impact the forest have on the climate. Biggest reason forests are taken down is to grow cattle for beef. If you are working on a startup to reverse this we'd like to fund it too

This is Kumar from YCS2012. I really really wish YC would bring on a polymer, nuclear, petroleum, or materials engineer to help wrangle on these thesis-es on all things related to energy. [I'm more on the textiles side of polymers, but I'm here if you need me.] Trees are not a great carbon removal technology, grasslands are much better as they aren't impacted by fires and droughts. Grasslands sequester carbon undergr…

What do you think about perennial grains that sequester carbon underground, like Kernza?

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/could-perennial-grains-be-n...

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#405
post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your post is utterly and needlessly condescending. Exactly what prompted you to respond to the other poster like that?

> Exactly what prompted you to respond to the other poster like that? When did you stop beating your wife? More to the point, I think "condescending" might not be the word your after, and I replied because OP's was a low-effort comment based on a silly platitude. It was facile, and had no depth. Its "question" was rhetorical, or at least phrased rhetorically, in that the implied answer ("It can't cope; prices have to…

Oh I’m sorry, did that hit a nerve? I’d respond to your wall of text, but that would require reading it. Better luck next time.

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#406
Could this endeavour be detrimental to the environment? (Please read my whole reasoning before calling me a Climate Change Denier or something like that)

I understand that humans are changing the Earth's environment, but with this we need to acknowledge that other organisms are doing it too. In particular plants have been taking CO2 from the atmosphere for ages and continue to do so. If you look at CO2 concentrations for long periods of time, you'll find that the levels of today are not very different from what has happened cyclically for hundreds of thousands of years.

The difference may be on the fact that now we are adding an extra influx of CO2 to the atmosphere, but in doing so we may be balancing greater concentrations of water vapour, which is a much more efficient greenhouse gas. If doubling the concentration of CO2 increases the temperature of the atmosphere, in say one degree, to gain another degree you'll need to double the concentration of CO2 again, so the effect of concentration of CO2 on temperature is logarithmic. Water vapour is much more efficient and by decreasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere we may increase the amount of water.

This is because of how photosynthesis (and agriculture) works. A plant breathes air in through small pores on their leaves called stomata. Doing so allows water to evaporate through those same pores. If the concentration of CO2 in the air is low, the plant will need to evaporate more water to absorb the same amount of CO2. On the other hand, if the plant doesn't have enough water to evaporate, it will close its stomata and the result will be lower growth and poor yield, simply because of the lack of carbon. Since nowadays many agricultural plots are using water from aquifers and other underground sources, we are actually putting into the environment much more water than would have been without agriculture. If we decrease the amount of CO2 we may push even further the plant's need for water and produce more water vapour, pushing even further the warming, since water is much more effective than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

We may be fighting against the wrong enemy. And in doing so punishing unfairly the poorest of the world, who rely on fossil fuel for energy and those who will be the most affected when crop yields start falling and the water available becomes insufficient.

I haven't been able to find a global warming model that incorporates this effect, but if someone made it this far into this comment and knows of any model that does, I'll be very grateful to hear from it. If someone related to this project reads this, please discuss it. It may be a mute point because some reason that I don't know, but it may very well be an important one.

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#407

I recently heard about Carbon Engineering, a B.C. Canada based firm that is extracting carbon from the atmosphere and making liquid fuel -- they call it "recycled fuel." Apparently it can be used in existing combustion engines. And it is already up and running. Something on the order of 10,000 of these industrial plants could get us carbon neutral rather quickly. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-co…

> Carbon Engineering's fuel costs about 25 per cent more than gasoline made from oil

Seriously?! If this is actually true, sign me up. I will absolutely pay a 25% fuel tax to make the world a better place and also not have to give oil companies more money

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#408
post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> wipe out all shellfish species worldwide Look you raise good points but this is nonsense. The Earth has had far higher CO2 concentrations for geological periods and there’s no fossil record suggesting shellfish all died. This kind of Trumpian rhetoric just hands ammo to the skeptics.

Right, the ones that exist today should be evolved for today’s environment. Higher acid levels should mean most of the average stock will die, and the mutants which survive will eventually adapt. Think of the George Carlin skit - the planet will be fine, just we humans and everything we know will be gone.

How is this not fear-mongering? Most people will be fine with a 5deg C global increase.

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#409

Like any sane person, I totally accept the global warming is real and most likely mostly man made. But rather than fighting that change which is already underway, can we not adapt to the higher temperatures and entropy? I appreciate that there's lots of side effects that we see as disastrous, but generally warmer = better for life in many parts of the earth. Most likely the positive outcomes of global warming do not…

The problem with +2° is, that we will be at +5° soon after. Phase III is an irreversible chain reaction.

Re: Carbon Removal Technologies

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that ok, though? If I build a building out of wood, or print a book in a library, that carbon is sequestered at least as long as the building or book exists.

That's true, but you've netted zero on carbon. You need to put up more trees if you want to remove carbon. I mean, by all means tear em down, but you gotta keep putting them up.

I think that's the point.. Grow more trees and use the wood and the tables and books that are created are carbon that used to be in the air.
Post reply on HN