Could Air Capture Help Cut Transport Emissions?

摘要

Many experts believe liquid hydrocarbons are the best transportation fuels because they are very easy to handle while packing a lot of energy into a small volume. The problem is carbon - gasoline is made of almost 90% of carbon and burning one liter of it generates some 2.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Reducing that CO2 without giving up the convenience of liquid fuels and the existing distribution infrastructure can be done with biofuels, but their large-scale development would involve major land use issues (NE Jul.16'15). Another elegant - yet technically challenging - solution is direct air capture (DAC), or CO2 extraction straight from the atmosphere, which several startup companies across the world are trying to promote.