Carbon capture – the get-out-of-jail-free card that does not actually work. Engineers have been trying to perfect the technology for years but the maximum effect it could manage is far short of what the planet needs.

3 comments

1. It is a rounding error at best, an oil industry scam.

2. It always seemed less useful than getting emissions to 0. Any “clean” energy used on capture can be used to replace fossil fuel emissions directly.

   Similarly, any claim of a particular business using clean energy is meaningless unless they themselves built the clean energy production. If a data center comes with a brand new and operational nuclear reactor, fair enough. If they use up the energy from existing renewables that were supplying other industry, or entire cities, not fair.

3. This is related to “net zero”which is essentially a hoax. The idea that we can find ways to remove co2 at scale and continue massive release, is ruse by the energy industry. Quite a trick when the removal processes are so energy intensive that it would also dramatically increase fossil fuel extraction.

   Some excellent papers, albeit depressing, on the Gibbs limit explain this perfectly with physics.

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