Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). CCS is likely to be one of the thorniest and most divisive issues that someone working to reduce climate change is going to encounter. CCS: you either love it, or at least support it, or you hate it. CCS involves the use of equipment and processes to remove carbon from where it is emerging from the use of fossil fuels or bio fuels, up to the level of trying to remove it from the atmosphere. Techniques to try and suck it from the air are generally referred to as geoengineering. At the other (small-scale) end of the technology are individual CCS units sized to remove carbon during the operation of a building’s heating and HVAC system. To get a look at what is operational at the scale of individual buildings, take a look at the website of a company called CARBiNX – www.carbinx.com. Their website states that their units capture carbon dioxide from a building’s heating equipment and permanently sequesters the carbon as potassium carbonate. To view what is involved with CCS at the macroscale – geoengineering – some of the following sources of information should be useful: “What is Geoengineering – And Why Should You Care?” www.technology.com 8/9/19. “Direct Air Capture is Going to Be One of the Pillars of Decarbonization”. www.carbonherald.com 11/11/22. “Dimming the Sun to Cool the Planet is a Desperate Idea, Yet We’re Inching Toward It”. by Bill McKibbon, in the New Yorker Magazine 11/22/22. www.newyorker.com And “A Breakout Year for Carbon Removal?” www.canarymedia.com 12/6/22. In between these 2 extremes, the arguments rage on as to the wisdom of including CCS as a legitimate and practical means of cooling the planet. Have a look at some of the following articles: “Why Carbon Capture and Storage Could Be the Game-changer the World Needs” www.weforum.org 3/22/19. “Slowing Climate Change Will Require Vastly More Carbon Capture, Study Says”. www.insideclimatenews.org 1/30/17. “What is Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage – and Can it Trap Emissions?” www.theguardian.com 9/24/20. From the Sierra Club: www.sierraclub.org/sierra/who-s-afraid-carbon-capture-pipeline-co2-ccs and “World Cannot Meet Climate Targets Relying on Carbon Capture and Storage”. www.globalwitness.org 1/11/21. “Researchers Develop New Tool That Could Lead to More Efficient Ways to Capture Carbon” www.pvbuzz.com 3/19/22. “Carbon Capture Takes Center Stage, But is its Promise an Illusion?” www.insideclimatenews.org 3/9/22.
