> I'm curious about this, because you treat it as just a matter of money. IT
> also
> costs energy. And the version they use uses materials that would not be
> available in a quantity to do everyones.
"They" incidentally are my current employer in the Netherlands (ECN,
the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands; and the usual stuff
applies, I am not talking for them, anything I say here is my own
private opinion expressed in my spare time). I've spent a little time
talking to Wolter about his thesis. He doesn't think the energy
penalty of 20-30% is the main problem at the moment. All that means is
that for a coal fired power plant some more coal needs to be dug out
with the attendant externalities of that. What's the big issue at the
moment is indeed the cost. Mineralisation is more expensive than other
options.
Mineralisation is a beautiful concept, because it reflects the way CO2
is being controlled over millions of years by nature. It is
unquestionably safe, and 99.9% or something like that of the world's
CO2 is already locked up in that way. And there is no limit on storage
capacity. There is no question that all of the world's fossil fuels
could be stored in minerals. Steel slag is a bit cheaper to use,
because it's a waste product available at 0 cost, but the 102 Euro
estimate isn't for steel slag, but for natural mineral deposits.
Wolter also mentioned that it has been proposed to grind up mountains
to increase the surface area available for reaction, and to speed up
natural weathering, interesting concept, but he didn't go into any
detail.
You'll know that I've been arguing for a fair while that zero
emissions doesn't have to be the end point. I now think that
mineralisation is another realistic option to make that happen. And
yes, at some stage that might mean having to dedicate some nuclear/
solar power plants purely towards producing power for sequestration.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated
venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of
global environmental change.
Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the
submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not
gratuitously rude.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
