Climate change is a very serious problem today that we cannot ignore. For this reason, governments are taking measures to solve the multiple and harmful effects of greenhouse gases caused by man, among which we find floods, droughts, and loss of ecosystems.
This is why Spanish green giant Iberdrola has been taking measures for years to reduce its impact on the environment. Having closed its coal plants and being a leader in renewable energies.
Take action in the present for the future
It is no longer just a matter of dramatically reducing current emissions. It is also essential to manage the greenhouse gases that already exist in the atmosphere that are damaging the planet.
To solve this, there are many technological advances focused on trapping these greenhouse gases and, thus, reducing global warming.
Many of these advances are focused on trapping carbon dioxide, the main gas that produces the greenhouse effect. If its accumulation can be reduced, the heating can be reversed.
Different steps towards a common good
The company BluePlanet has one of the most promising projects, with a technology capable of capturing the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere and converting it into synthetic limestone with which buildings can be built, since it is a material that is mixed with cement. In this way, CO2 is converted into CO3, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and using it in construction.
Some technologies capture CO2 and store it underground, but it has no use there, so there are other companies that use it, reducing the costs of cleaning the atmosphere of carbon dioxide.
Carbon Engineering uses the CO2 it captures directly from the air to make an emissions-neutral fuel. Their goal is to capture one million tons of CO2 each year, which would be equivalent to the work done by 40 million trees.
On the other hand, the company Climeworks stores it permanently underground, and can later be used in carbonated beverages, fertilizers and carbon-neutral fuels. As they state on their website, “A climate-positive world requires us to reuse, reduce, recycle… and then remove. We can remove unavoidable and historic CO₂ from the air in a safe and permanent way. Each one of us can make a huge impact, and together we can change the world. It also allows any individual to participate in the Project with different monthly subscriptions that guarantee a certain removal of CO2 from the air.
Global Thermostat, ensures that its technology allows the reuse of CO2 in a profitable way in multiple industries, reducing harmful emissions and helping to close the global carbon cycle.
Capturing carbon dioxide from the source
Most efforts, however, heve been directed at capturing CO2 before it is released, at the power plants that generate it. There are two ways use this technology:
– Before combustion: trapping carbon dioxide before combustion is something that is already used when the energy source is natural gas, minimizing environmental impact.
– After combustion: avoiding its release into the atmosphere.
In this sense, the most promising technology is Oxyfuel combustion. This technology has managed to capture 90% of the emissions from a generating plant. The current challenge is to lower the costs of this technology so that it can be used extensively.
Back to the origins
The best solution against emissions, basically consists of going back to the origins, to the natural, to the forests. Large forests that can store and counteract the emissions of countries such as Peru or Colombia.
This natural solution is essential to stop and reverse the damage caused by climate change, and it’s also the most cost-effective. Unfortunately, this only receives 2.5% of public investment in climate, according to data from the Scientific American magazine.
Reducing emissions has not been enough to offset all the damage caused over the years. For this reason, all the technological advances against climate change are key. Both to reduce current emissions and to capture the gases that are already in the air.