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April 19th, 2019 by Michael Barnard

SNIPPET:

Carbon Engineering recently garnered $68 million in investment in its air-carbon capture technology from three fossil fuel majors. This is part 4 of the 5 article series assessing the technology and the value of the investment.

The first piece summarized the technology and the challenges, and did a bottoms-up assessment to give context for what Carbon Engineering is actually doing. The second piece stepped through Carbon Engineering’s actual solution in detail. The third piece returned to the insurmountable problem of scale and deals with the sheer volume of air that must be moved and the scale of machinery they have designed for the purpose. This fourth article will look at the market for air carbon capture CO2 and assess why three fossil fuel majors might be interested. The final article will address the key person behind this technology and the expert opinions of third parties.

There is zero net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere if air carbon capture is used for enhanced oil recovery.

Full article:

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/19/chevrons-fig-leaf-part-4-carbon-engineerings-only-market-is-pumping-more-oil/

Agelbert COMMENT: This is a well thought out, thoroughly researched and accurately presented series of articles. Thank you, Michael Barnard 💐, for telling it exactly how it is.

I've thought about the Carbon Dioxide issue for several years. I have always questioned the motives behind the hydrocarbon industry cheerleading CO2 capture and sequestration.

IMHO, after looking at this from several reality based angles (unlike the unreality based happy talk pushing MO of the 🦕😈🦖 fossil fuelers), the fact that the best present day technology to keep the CO2 concentration down (which is used in Nuclear Submarines, which are forced to surface every six months because they cannot keep CO2 below 8,000 PPM after that time period) cannot get CO2 levels anywhere near 5,000 PPM, never mind the 350 PPM we desperately need to get back to in order to avoid the worse effects of the Sixth Mass Extinction now in progress from excessive GHG emissions, evidences that the proposed CO2 reduction technology, euphemistically called "capture and sequestration" technology, is a fraud. 👎

IOW, all the technofixes out there refuse to admit that the GOAL here is NOT to keep the Hydrocarbon Industry profitable. The GOAL is 350 PPM, period. Anything else is simply wishful thinking.

So, IMHO, we have to resort to biological solutions involving rapid photosynthesis.

I researched this thoroughly. There is no plant life that can beat algea at rapid photosynthesis, which is the sine qua non requirement for reaching the 350 PPM goal, but algae is so hydrophylic (water loving) that too much energy is required to dry it for storage. 👎 No, passive solar energy will not work to dry algae. That has been tried unsuccessfully. Also, algea can grow rapidly only in a very narrow range of the biosphere.👎 Algea is not the answer.

🤔👨‍🔬

But, there is a floating plant, the tiniest angiosperm (flowering plant) known to science, that can do the job of rapid photosynthesis that we need on a planetary scale. 🌍🌎🌏🌞

► It is extremely hardy.

► It grows in nearly all areas of the planet, with a longer growing season that any other plant life form except phytoplankton.

 ► It doubles it's mass every 48 hours or so, depending on the availability of Sunlight, Carbon Dioxide and cheap fertilizer like pig feces.

► It is tiny, but not microscopic. It can easily be harvested without heavy machinery.

► Unlike microscopic algae, Drying these tiny plants with passive sunlight is also easily done.

► It is easily stored.

► It can even be used as animal feed AND supplemental nutrition for humans too.

► It has been used to clean ponds and lakes of toxic heavy metals. When used for this pupose, it becomes poisonous and must be treated as hazardous waste.

The common name is Duckweed, of which there are a number of species of floating plants. My favorite is Lemna minor ✨🌞

The science based case for a planet scale Lemna minor project has actually been made by evidence of a floating plant when the Arctic had shallow freshwater seas (millions of years ago). Scientists now believe a rapid cooling that took place at that time, even though the CO2 level was even higher then than it is today, was directly caused by the proliferation of Azolla floating plants in that sea. They rapidly lowered the CO2 levels, sinking when they died and being replaced by others, until ice formed over them. They cooled ALL of Earth's atmosphere ⛄ from a CO2 PPM concentration that was higher than the one we are saddled with now.

"This freshwater surface layer allowed Azolla to repeatedly spread across the ocean surface forming mats of vegetation during a succession of episodes called the ‘the Arctic Azolla Event‘. The event lasted for almost a million years from about 50 to 49 million years ago."

Arctic Azolla Event - You can watch a Powerpoint presentation about the Arctic Azolla Event on this page. - One of the most remarkable discoveries about Azolla came in 2004. A scientific expedition to the North Pole showed that this remarkable plant had a massive effect on the Earth’s climate 50 million years ago.

It happened before. We can make it happen again. 💫

True, we do not ⌛ 🌡️ have a  million years or so to do the job, but we don't need more than a few decades to scale this biological CO2 sequestering program to all desert areas of the planet on gigantic shallow (a little more than one meter of depth is all you need) artificial lakes.

True, the fact remains that this aquatic family of plants, like Azolla, requires plenty of water, a resource that is mostly not available in desert areas. THAT, however, is a problem that human engineering CAN solve, unlike trying to get CO2 down to 350 PPM with technology that cannot even keep it below 5,000 PPM!

If Azolla in the Arctic freshwater sea 50 million years ago, a tiny portion of the planetary surface, could cool down an overheated atmosphere with a much higher CO2 PPM concentration than we have now, there is no rational excuse for not duplicating that event with a crash program to grow Duckweed in all the non-arable land areas of the planet. 👍👍👍

The Hydrocarbon Hellspawn have NOTHING to offer. They CANNOT DELIVER an atmospheric CO2 PPM reduction to 350 PPM. All they can do is bill us for technofixes that allow them to profit over planet while the CO2 concentration continues to rise!


Let's stop being crazy and stupid. Let's GO WITH A PROVEN BIOLOGICAL CO2 reducing solution.




Proof of concept graphic (obviously the ponds will have to be at least a million times bigger than those shown and made from natural materials with Renewable energy powered machinery):


This video pushes Duckweed as a biofuel source. I post it so you can see how fast it grows. I still believe we certainly can use Duckweed for biofuels, but the most vitally important use we need to make of this fast growing plant is the reduction of CO2 from our atmosphere 🔊 NOW, before the biosphere we depend on is cooked! ☠️ 😱


 The Fossil Fuelers 🦖 DID THE Clean Energy  Inventions suppressing, Climate Trashing, human health depleting CRIME,   but since they have ALWAYS BEEN liars and conscience free crooks 🦀, they are trying to AVOID   DOING THE TIME or   PAYING THE FINE!     Don't let them get away with it! Pass it on!