AIR EXTRACTION: A BRIDGE TO RENEWABLE ENERGY
AND COMPETITION
FOR THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY
Friday, November
19, 2004
Room
825 SWM, 1:00 PM
Frank Zeman
Graduate
Student
Earth
& Environmental Engineering
Abstract
The combustion of fossil fuels provides the vast
majority of the global energy supply. The necessary byproduct of
this combustion is carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. Accumulation of CO2
gas in the atmosphere has provoked concern regarding its effect
on the global climate and spawned worldwide interest in the reduction
of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. The current philosophy is leaning
towards providing zero emission fossil fuel plants that produce
power and hydrogen. The CO2 is stored underground and the hydrogen
fuels the transportation/residential sector. This solution is distant
and may not mitigate all emissions. I will be presenting the process
of air extraction, where CO2 is scrubbed from the atmosphere, as
a bridging technology and competitor to this vision. Air extraction
is a chemical looping process that uses a combination of existing
and novel technologies to concentrate atmospheric CO2 from 375 ppm
to several atmospheres. I will discuss the process,the scaling issues
and the potential of air extraction.
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