Carbon Capture is key to the energy transition and also creating new opportunities for tech-savvy entrepreneurs.
As the effects of climate change dominate daily headlines, scientists are working at a furious pace to turn back its impact. The most effective means of doing so break down into a few major categories, says Mei Chia, Senior Business Leader of CO2 Solutions at Honeywell. "Those categories include changing to renewable power, wind, solar, converting to hydrogen and carbon capture."
Carbon capture is a process of grabbing the carbon dioxide that is produced by burning fossil fuels or biological processes and storing it or utilizing it in a way that does not adversely affect the atmosphere. While reducing the amount of CO2 produced is a major goal, there are some industries, like steel, power and cement, that are considered "hard to abate." In these cases, the lowest cost and most effective way to lessen the environmental footprint is carbon capture. "It's like a big washing machine that you put on top of your stacks," explains Chia of the technology, "It basically separates the CO2 from everything else that goes back into the air."
In this video, Chia explains how these futuristic-sounding technologies are being used right now, and explains how this growing field is ripe for entrepreneurs who very literally want to make a positive impact on their world.
Learn more about Honeywell's carbon capture solutions here: https://entm.ag/CCTech
As the effects of climate change dominate daily headlines, scientists are working at a furious pace to turn back its impact. The most effective means of doing so break down into a few major categories, says Mei Chia, Senior Business Leader of CO2 Solutions at Honeywell. "Those categories include changing to renewable power, wind, solar, converting to hydrogen and carbon capture."
Carbon capture is a process of grabbing the carbon dioxide that is produced by burning fossil fuels or biological processes and storing it or utilizing it in a way that does not adversely affect the atmosphere. While reducing the amount of CO2 produced is a major goal, there are some industries, like steel, power and cement, that are considered "hard to abate." In these cases, the lowest cost and most effective way to lessen the environmental footprint is carbon capture. "It's like a big washing machine that you put on top of your stacks," explains Chia of the technology, "It basically separates the CO2 from everything else that goes back into the air."
In this video, Chia explains how these futuristic-sounding technologies are being used right now, and explains how this growing field is ripe for entrepreneurs who very literally want to make a positive impact on their world.
Learn more about Honeywell's carbon capture solutions here: https://entm.ag/CCTech
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I bet you've heard this term before and that it's an important tool in fighting climate
00:04 change but you might not know exactly what it means.
00:08 Carbon capture.
00:10 I didn't know either.
00:11 I mean, how do you exactly capture CO2 out of the air?
00:16 Turns out this technology not only exists but it's being implemented widely and it's
00:21 only getting better.
00:22 Mei Chia at Honeywell explained it to me.
00:24 [MUSIC]
00:31 We hear a lot about carbon capture technology these days but Mei, what exactly is it?
00:38 Carbon capture is really simple.
00:39 If you think about all of the industry and the plants that you see around you, to get
00:45 energy they burn fossil fuels or any kind of waste material that is burned and combust
00:54 and releases CO2.
00:57 That CO2 currently today goes up a stack and goes back into the environment.
01:02 Carbon capture is catching that CO2 and separating it from everything else that's coming out
01:09 from that stack and producing a pure CO2 stream that can go into utilization.
01:15 So essentially that's what it is.
01:17 It's like a big washing machine that you put on top of your stacks and cleans up that stack
01:22 separating the CO2 from everything else that goes back into the air.
01:27 This would seem to be a really important contributor to fighting climate change, no?
01:31 Climate change is a combination of a couple of different things, right?
01:36 You have changing to renewable power, wind, solar, converting to hydrogen and carbon capture.
01:45 So there are certain industries where they're called hard to abate industries such as steel,
01:51 power and cement where the lowest cost way of decarbonizing that particular industry
01:59 is carbon capture.
02:00 And how advanced is the carbon capture technology that we have today?
02:05 How easy is it to capture carbon?
02:08 So the technologies going into capturing CO2 are actually technologies that we've used
02:12 for many, many years.
02:14 Solvent technologies or cryogenic technologies.
02:17 It is just taking those technologies from where we were using it in the past and putting
02:24 it now to the back end of the plant and capturing CO2 with it.
02:28 Carbon capture can be expensive.
02:30 And what I keep thinking is, well, who's going to pay to just capture carbon and sequester
02:36 it somewhere?
02:37 So how is the economy of carbon capture supposed to work so that we're doing it and we're
02:44 actually pulling that CO2 out of the atmosphere?
02:47 So in countries like the US, there is something called the IRA, where there is a tax credit.
02:54 Those tax credits are designed so that they will cover the cost of CO2 capture.
03:03 In addition to that, the products that we have as consumers, we will want those products
03:09 to be as low carbon as possible.
03:12 In order to get to that place, you have to have a process within industry that's slowly
03:18 reducing the carbon content of everything that's produced over time.
03:23 May, entrepreneurs hear about new technologies and they always think, where are the opportunities
03:30 for me?
03:31 Where could maybe the next great business be built?
03:33 Are there a lot of entrepreneurial opportunities inside the world of carbon capture?
03:38 The main driver there is to keep reducing that cost of capture.
03:43 So as much as we can innovate and drive novel ideas, novel material, smaller sizes, and
03:51 reduce that cost of capture, there will be that opportunity for entrepreneurship within
03:58 that space.
03:59 It's taking a big problem like decarbonizing a power plant, but applying that to smaller
04:06 and smaller industries.
04:08 So not just the huge gigawatt power plants need to decarbonize, it's everyone along the
04:14 value chain.
04:15 So that sounds like amazing opportunities because there is so much need for this technology,
04:21 but also for ways to make it more efficient.
04:24 And making it more standardized, right?
04:27 If you have a current solution in industry that doesn't have a decarbonization bolt on,
04:33 what we think will happen going forward is that anything new will come out with carbon
04:39 capture built into it.
04:42 Because that's the only way that we would actually achieve the ambitions that we've
04:46 set out in terms of our net zero profit.
04:48 I'm curious what you see for the future here.
04:51 So obviously as time goes on and this technology becomes more widely adopted, we expect costs
04:58 to go down.
05:00 And then what?
05:01 What is the future in 5, 10, 20 years look like as we're thinking about carbon capture?
05:06 It becomes something that is built into any product that you bring out to the marketplace.
05:13 It's like if you're thinking of building something new, it is status quo that carbon
05:19 capture or fueling by hydrogen would be the pathway that you choose.
05:26 So it becomes your day to day.
05:27 It's no more something novel.
05:29 It's just a must have.
05:31 Well, thanks, May.
05:32 This is so interesting and really exciting to see how this technology is bringing us
05:36 into a more sustainable future.
05:37 Thanks, Jason.
05:38 Thanks, Jen.
05:39 Thanks.
05:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:43 [MUSIC ENDS]
05:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]