Carbon Recycling: An Alternative to Carbon Capture and Storage

摘要

Carbon capture and storage is being hailed as the answer to the globe's most pressing question: What will we do with the 27 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted yearly from the burning of fossil fuels?Touted as the most promising interim solution to deal with the greenhouse gas responsible for global warming, carbon capture and storage still remains unproven, costly and will not be commercially available for another 10-20 years. Meanwhile scientists are exploring alternatives to carbon capture and storage by capitalizing on CO_2 as a commodity instead of treating it as a waste.Twenty-seven billion tons of CO_2 is already a hefty number, but energy-related CO_2 emissions are projected to reach 43 billion metric tons per year by 2030, an increase of 60 percent. A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that growing energy demands from emerging giants such as China and India coupled with a lack of cost-effective alternatives to fossil fuels means that by 2050, 77 percent of the world's power still will be derived from fossil fuels.