we are hurtling toward the day when climate change could be irreversible i've seen sea levels already
altering this nation's coast china's capital is choking in its worst pollution of the year
five percent of species will become extinct sea levels rising glaciers melting
Okay, we know the world is currently on a dangerous path.
CO2 levels in our atmosphere are at more than 400 parts per million.
That might not sound like a lot, but it’s more than double the amount from just 100
years ago and it’s at the highest point it’s been in at least the last 800,000 years.
Obviously the world needs to reduce CO2 emissions, but at the end of the day,
that might not be enough, so some companies have started fighting back. And they’ve got help,
as stocks like Tesla take off, venture capital firms are pouring billions of
dollars into climate tech startups, and even the world’s richest man, Elon Musk,
is getting in on the action with a $100 million dollar prize for carbon removal.
We’ve already made a video on the most common ways we remove CO2
from the atmosphere today, but let’s look to the future. Here are five
of the most promising startups in the fight against climate change.
Direct air capture, where you pull CO2 right out of the air,
already exists, in fact we mentioned it in our last video,
but it’s incredibly expensive. Climeworks is one of the leaders in direct air capture of CO2,
and they charge $60 a month to remove 50kg of CO2 from the air. Over the course of a year that’s
600kg of CO2 at a cost of $720 dollars, but that’s the amount of CO2 a normal house’s heating system
produces in just a month. Meanwhile, the world emits 43 billion tons of CO2 annually. Scaling
this technology up to cover the world’s emissions would come at a price tag of
$46 trillion dollars a year or 7 times the US’s national budget. Obviously for this technology
to take off it needs to become much cheaper, and that’s where High Hopes Labs comes in.
Capturing a gas is much easier when it's close to its freezing temperature
and CO2 freezes at negative 80° C or negative 112° F. The only place that you’ll find CO2 that cold
is 15 kilometers, or 9 miles, above the earth's surface. And since most of the
gases in our atmosphere freeze at much colder temperatures, it’s a relatively efficient process.
High Hopes Labs, not to be confused with the song by Panic at the Disco *play gotta have
high high hopes for a living part of song fast if we can avoid a copyright claim*
have tested its system on a small scale, releasing gas-filled balloons with a box
that serves as a carbon-capture device attached underneath. The frozen carbon
is then separated from the air and is brought back to earth to be recycled.
The company aims to build much larger balloons that could each remove a tonne of carbon a day
at a cost below $100, much less than the $1200 it costs Climeworks to do the same
thing here on the ground. But all they do is capture the CO2. What would we do with it?
Well, back here on the ground,
carboncure has developed a practical solution to earth’s abundance of CO2.
CarbonCure has developed a system that injects CO₂ into fresh concrete
to reduce its carbon footprint without compromising performance.
Once injected, the CO₂ undergoes a mineralization process and becomes permanently embedded. This
results in economic and climate benefits for concrete producers—truly a win-win.
Carboncure works by injecting recycled carbon dioxide into cement during mixing.
Carboncure doesn’t capture the CO2 themselves like High Hopes Labs, but instead provides a use for it
once captured. Once injected, the CO2 undergoes a chemical reaction and converts into a mineral,
calcium carbonate, which makes the concrete stronger; improving the compressive strength of
the concrete, which then allows for a reduction of the cement content while maintaining the strength
requirements. Since cement is the most expensive part of concrete, the ability to use less of it,
means a cheaper product. And once the cement is poured, that trapped CO2 will never be
re-released into the atmosphere, even if the concrete structure is demolished.
Every cubic yard of concrete poured saves on average 25 lbs or 17 kg of CO2 emissions.
That means an average high-rise building built with this technology would save 1.5 million pounds
of CO2 emissions, which is equivalent to the carbon absorbed by 888 acres of forest in a year.
And this isn’t some hypothetical solution. The company already has 330 plants operating around
the world capturing carbon dioxide emissions and sequestering them in building materials.
But I know what you’re thinking, cement mixing isn’t exactly the most exciting thing,
why can’t we remove CO2, and party while doing it? Well, that’s where the air company comes in.
Normally alcohol is made when yeast breaks down sugars in different foods.
Wine is made from the sugar in grapes, beer from grain, cider from apples, and vodka from
potatoes. But rather than making alcohol by taking big sugars and breaking them down,
AirCo is building them up from carbon dioxide.
Right now they only manufacture vodka, but if this technology was applied to the
rest of alcoholic drinks, they could sequester between 2 and 7% of global CO2 emissions a year.
Ethanol, the key molecule in alcohol, has just two carbons,
but why stop there. By continuing to build up molecules they hope to produce
more complex products like kerosene for jet fuel which can have anywhere from 10 to 16
carbon atoms per molecule and even sugars that you could one day add to your food.
But AirCo isn’t the only company out there trying to get you to consume some of that excess CO2.
Growing populations and increasing wealth means the global consumption of animal products is set
to double by 2050. This represents a huge problem. You could cut your CO2 emissions in half by going
vegan, and even by as much as a quarter if you just cut down on red meats like beef and lamb.
But people love their meat, so rather than cutting it out of our lives,
how can we make it less CO2 intensive. Well, the answer may lie in what these animals eat. Protein
for animal diets is too resource intensive to meet the growing demand. Massive deforestation
is necessary to make room for soy to feed our chickens, and intensive fishing is required to
source fish meal to feed our salmon. At deepbranch they have a solution for this. They convert carbon
dioxide into a sustainable protein rich ingredient that can be used to partially
or completely replace these conventional sources of protein used in animal feed.
The way this technology works is a form of fermentation. A special set
of microbes use carbon dioxide and hydrogen as respective sources of carbon and energy,
in the same way that most microbes use sugar. At the end of their fermentation they’re left
with a dry powder with 70% protein content, with a comparative nutritional profile to that of fish
meal. And because it is produced independent of weather and season, it’s a stable food source
that’s competitively priced, all while being dramatically more sustainable than the incumbents.
A plant capable of producing 100,000 tons of this feed a year, would save an area three times
the size of Paris from being deforested. And by producing locally to their farms,
they can eliminate 60,000 barrels of oil in shipping. With this technology,
a salmon fillet you might buy in the grocery store, can be produced with 25%
less CO2 (including transportation and packaging) meaning a real effect you can see, but not taste.
Speaking about all these emissions from transportation,
is there anything we can do as we wait around for the EV revolution? Yes.
Liquid wind is turning the wind into liquid…..
And by that I mean converting CO2 into liquid fuel to power transportation, meaning
less reliance on fossil fuels. They generate hydrogen from renewable electricity and water.
Then, they combine that hydrogen with carbon dioxide emissions to form renewable fuel in the
form of methanol. Chemically this final product is identical to how it’s normally produced,
meaning it’s compatible with existing infrastructure, and can easily be used by
industry, providing a clear and accessible pathway to carbon neutral transportation.
These are some of the most promising up and coming technologies to help fight
global warming and reduce CO2 emissions. But who knows if they’ll all prove viable.
To see today’s most successful ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere,
check out this video, and remember, there is always more to learn.