SKYscrubber

StoppingClimateChange.com                                                                           SKYscrubber
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This subject's pages:         SKYscrubber          Powering SKYscrubbers          Footnotes & Links
Also: Carbon Dioxide Removal/Negative Emissions Technologies Bibliography: http://ceassessment.org/cdrnets-bibliography/

SKYscrubber: Air CO2 Scrubber
("Scrubber" is the correct term for an apparatus that removes gas impurities from another gas or liquids.)

http://airminers.org/ Air Miners - the index of companies and projects mining carbon from the air.
http://www.centerforcarbonremoval.org/ Center for Carbon Removal from the air.

Disclaimer: This web page is energy talk by an unassociated engineer inspired by Carbon Engineering's patented invention, not professional engineering advice.
The patented Carbon Engineering, Ltd., air contactor and CO2 Capture paper can be downloaded for free at:
http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1974/4380.full.pdf 23 page pdf. They suggest using natural gas oxyfuel carbon captured heat. 1/2 ton gas CO2 per ton air CO2 captured.

June 6, 2016 Article about it: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601490/go-inside-an-industrial-plant-that-sucks-carbon-dioxide-straight-out-of-the-air/#/set/id/601632/

http://carbonengineering.com/

Some CO2 capture chemicals, lye (Sodium Hydroxide), Sodium Carbonate, and Calcium Hydroxide for example, are hazardous substances.
Example: Lye Hazardous substance fact sheet - 1706.pdf

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The Calorific Value of gas, which is dry, gross and measured at standard conditions of temperature (15^oC) and pressure (1013.25 millibars), is usually quoted in Megajoules per cubic metre (MJ/m³). Gas passing through the National Grid pipeline system has a CV of 37.5 MJ/m³ to 43.0 MJ/m³.

Volume of gas:	50,000	standard cubic feet (SCF) at 60°F and 14.7psia
Molecular weight (MW) of natural gas:	20	lbs/lb-mole
Ideal gas law conversion factor:	379.3	SCF/lb-mole (see Reference 1)
Weight (mass) of natural gas:	2636.4	lbs (see Equation 1)
Weight (mass) of natural gas:	1.32	tons (see Equation 2)

Several years before it was built, it was estimated that this device might consume 1/2 ton of SCF natural gas to produce 1 ton of carbon dioxide.

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(Below) Nuclear powered air CO2 scrubber for removing up to 4 million tons of CO2 from the air per year.

A High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) that could power the above. The Chinese are building 40 for the Rongcheng Power Complex:
HTR-PM Pebble Bed Reactor Progress - 01-China-DONG_V2 .pdf
HTR-PM Pebble Bed Reactor Progress - Photos - 01-China-DONG_V2. pdf

We have all the energy we need from fission. We don't have to wait until fusion works. We know how to make radioactivity safe.

Other nuclear reactors for process heat applications like Skyscrubber.

Producing steam to drive a turbine and generator is relatively easy, and a light water reactor (LWR) running at 350°C (662°F) does this readily. Other types of reactors are required for higher temperatures. A 2010 US Department of Energy document quotes 500°C (932°F) for a liquid metal cooled reactor (FNR), 860°C (1,580°F) for a molten salt reactor (MSR), and 950°C (1,740°F) for a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR). Lower-temperature reactors can be used with supplemental gas heating to reach higher temperatures, though employing an LWR would not be practical or economic. The DOE said that high reactor outlet temperatures in the range 750°C (1,382°F) to 950°C (1,740°F) were required to satisfy all end user requirements evaluated to date for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant. - World Nuclear Association, November 2015.

One advanced reactor that could power the nuclear Skyscrubbing plant above, China’s Generation IV reactor, could be ready next year.

(MIT Technology Review) The 105-megawatt Generation IV HTGR type nuclear reactor built by China Nuclear Engineering & Construction Corp. could be completed by November 2017, according to Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology Director Zhang Zuoyi. The plant is nearly finished Zhang said

Construction of the high temperature helium-cooled pebble bed design type plant is nearly complete, and the next 18 months will be spent installing the reactor components, running tests, and loading the fuel before the reactors go critical in November 2017.

If it’s successful, Shandong plant would generate a total of 210 megawatts and will be followed by a 600-megawatt facility in Jiangxi province. China plans to sell these reactors internationally; in January, Chinese president Xi Jinping signed an agreement with King Salman bin Abdulaziz to construct a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) in Saudi Arabia.

“This technology is going to be on the world market within the next five years,” Zhang predicts. “We are developing these reactors to belong to the world.” -

Nuclear News Roundup for 2/14/16 Posted on February 13, 2016 by djysrv

See: http://www.platts.com/Products.aspx?xmlFile=worldelectricpowerplantsdatabase.xml to get an idea of how many power plants there are in the world. Or check out the lights below.

Any country capable of making a power plant boiler that won't explode can make, install, and maintain the necessary carbon capture equipment.

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(Below) Several different ways to help you get your mind around how Direct Air Capture of CO2 works

(Below) Direct Air Capture of CO2's Chemistry Elements

The above suggests it will take the heat energy of a 50 Watt light bulb running one hour to pull one 44 gram mol of CO2 from the air. When you add in the associated equipment not included here, such as fans and pumps, 60 Watt-hours per mol is probably wildly optimistic.

This is why the author thinks nuclear energy is the energy of choice for this task. Using a 500 megaWatt(thermal) General Atomics EM2 reactor above adapted for air scrubbing kiln heating, and using the 179 kJ shown in the diagram above, the upper limit might be 4,248,600 tons of CO2 per year - assuming no heat is used to make electricity. That's 40 air contactors worth of air.

Comments from Carbon Engineering:
Maybe $250 to capture a ton of recycled CO2 from the air using oxyfuel natural gas which would also produce 1/2 ton of fossil CO2 from gas.

Carbon Engineering's functional sketch, (Edited by Skyscrubber web site author).

Skyscrubber author's explanation of how several systems to capture CO2 from the air work.

This process produces the very clean/pure CO2 gas feedstock needed to make methanol fuels without contaminating their reacting catalysts.

(Below) Carbon Engineering, Ltd., Calgary, Canada, 2012 prototype Air Contactor and CO2 Capture System

Further Reading About Direct Air Capture (Air Scrubber) Technology

Skyscrubber's Direct Air Capture of CO2 can be done by anyone anywhere. If you wish to learn more about the technology, authoritative reports on the subject of direct air capture of CO2 can be downloaded for free at the following links:

(1) www.aps.org/policy/reports/assessments/upload/dac2011.pdf "Direct Air Capture of CO2 with Chemicals", 100 page pdf report. The basic handbook for scrubbing CO2 from the air. They make it very clear that only the largest sources of heat energy would be able to remove practical amounts of CO2 from the air.

(2) A comparison of current Direct Air Capture (DAC) technologies was made by MIT and can be downloaded for free at:
http://www.pnas.org/content/108/51/20428.full.pdf+html 6 page pdf report. Again, the downside is the massive amount of heat energy needed.

Study by the National Research Council of the National Academies.
The $49.95 paperback book is available free as a downloadable pdf file or can be read on-line.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/18805/climate-intervention-carbon-dioxide-removal-and-reliable-sequestration

The following documents were made available as Creative Commons documents by Springer. These are titles only from 45.066 collection.. Contact Springer for full pdfs.

Springer 01 - Special Issue Introduction .pdf
Springer 02 - The Role of Negative CO2.pdf
Springer 03 - Can Radiative Forcing Be Limited .pdf
Springer 04 - Is CO2 Removal A Game Changer .pdf
Springer 05 - Direct Air Capture of CO2 Models .pdf
Springer 06 - Optimal Negative Emissions Strategies .pdf
Springer 07 - Limits to CO2 Removal .pdf
Springer 08 - Oceans and Negative Carbon Emissions .pdf
Springer 09 - Two Loop Direct Air Capture of CO2.pdf
Springer 10 - Exploring Negative CO2 and Climate Policy Initiatives .pdf

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Skyscrubber Overview    Science Of Skyscrubbing    Air Contactors    CO2 Extraction Kilns    CO2 Disposal    Negative Aspects
         Powering Skyscrubbers    Wind Electric    Oxyfuel    Nuclear Air Scrubbers    Seascrubber
         Developed Skyscrubbers    Carbon Engineering    Los Alamos Green Freedom    University of Rome    CO2CRC    Local Index

  Overview of Skyscrubbers

To Get Up To Speed On Carbon Engineering's Air Scrubber
http://www.carbonengineering.com/
CHECK OUT CARBON ENGINEERING'S VIDEO
Their low-CO2 vehicle fuel scenarios: http://carbonengineering.com/air-capture/

Larger, 2015 Model Carbon Engineering Prototype

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Note: Only participating chemicals shown.

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Footnotes & Links

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