Helmholtz: Climate Engineering: “Decades might pass.” (German)
German article on CE
German article on CE
Snyder, B. (2019): Costs of biomass pyrolysis as a negative emission technology: A case study. In: Int J Energy Res 40 (7), S. 940. DOI: 10.1002/er.4361.
“Biomass pyrolysis is a promising method for the creation of biochar, a potentially long‐lived carbon sink, and renewable fuels. While a number of studies of the costs of pyrolysis exist, many fail to value the carbon storage benefit associated with biochar. Here, we evaluate the costs of three types of small‐scale pyrolysis systems (slow and fast, compared with gasification) in Costa Rica. We find that under many combinations of model parameters, fast and slow pyrolysis models are cost‐effective.”
“In mid-December, more than 28,000 people met in Washington, D.C., to discuss everything earth science-related at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. But amid the dry data and scientific acronyms at a[nbsp]session on solar geoengineering, the science had a patina of existentialist dread that you might not see in a similar forum. There were questions of public disclosure, talk of slippery slopes, and an inescapable nervousness, as if maybe this subject was only barely sitting on the respectable side of science.”
“As policymakers face the magnitude of the 1.5-degree challenge, new technologies and approaches for capping temperature increases – referred to as climate engineering or geoengineering – are under growing discussion.”
“Cooling the earth by blocking out the sun, although potentially disastrous, is now a feasible answer to climate change. As a Harvard research paper published late last year proved, solar geo-engineering is both technically feasible and relatively cheap. With governments and international bodies considering the technology, a South African university has just announced a study. But how convenient is this answer for our politicians and heavy emitters?”
“Plants are humanity’s greatest ally in the fight against climate change. Plants soak up carbon dioxide and turn it into leaves and branches. The more trees humans plant, the less heat-trapping carbon pollution in the air. Unfortunately, plants require a lot of water and land, so much that humans might need to find a new ally to help draw down all that carbon. New research from a team of German scientists suggests that artificial photosynthesis could help. Scientists are urging the world to invest in the technology, which remains too costly to be practical.”
Miocic, J.; Gilfillan, S.; Frank, N.; Schroeder-Ritzrau, A.; Burnside, N.; Haszeldine, S. (2019): 420,000 year assessment of fault leakage rates shows geological carbon storage is secure. In: Scientific reports 9 (1), S. 769. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-36974-0.
“Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is routinely cited as a cost effective tool for climate change mitigation. CCS can directly reduce industrial CO2 emissions and is essential for the retention of CO2 extracted from the atmosphere. To be effective as a climate change mitigation tool, CO2 must be securely retained for 10,000 years (10 ka) with a leakage rate of below 0.01% per year[nbsp]of the total[nbsp]amount of CO2[nbsp]injected. Migration of CO2 back to the atmosphere via leakage through geological faults is a potential high impact risk to CO2 storage integrity.”
Zhao, R.; Liu, L.; Zhao, L.; Deng, S.; Li, S.; Zhang, Y.; Li, H. (2019): Thermodynamic exploration of temperature vacuum swing adsorption for direct air capture of carbon dioxide in buildings. In: Energy Conversion and Management 183, S. 418–426. DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2019.01.009.
“Abrupt climate change such as the loss of Arctic sea-ice area urgently needs negative emissions technologies. The potential application of direct air capture of carbon dioxide from indoor air and outdoor air in closed buildings or crowded places has been discussed in this paper. From the aspects of carbon reduction and indoor comfort, the ventilation system integrating a capture device is of great value in practical use.”
Green, J.; Seneviratne, S.; Berg, A.; Findell, K.; Hagemann, S.; Lawrence, D..; Gentine, P. (2019): Large influence of soil moisture on long-term terrestrial carbon uptake. In: Nature 565 (7740), S. 476–479. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0848-x.
“Although the terrestrial biosphere absorbs about 25 per cent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the rate of land carbon uptake remains highly uncertain, leading to uncertainties in climate projections1,2. Understanding the factors that limit or drive land carbon storage is therefore important for improving climate predictions. […] Our results emphasize that the capacity of continents to act as a future carbon sink critically depends on the nonlinear response of carbon fluxes to soil moisture and on land–atmosphere interactions. This suggests that the increasing trend in carbon uptake rate may not be sustained past the middle of the century and could result in accelerated atmospheric CO2 growth.”
“The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has established a new, dedicated component within its Energy and Environment program focused on supporting energy and environmental science. The Foundation is currently soliciting Letters of Inquiry for innovative, collaborative academic research projects led by early- and mid-career scholars that examine net-zero interventions and negative emissions technologies in the United States.”