Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves carbon dioxide (CO2) being removed from the atmosphere and stored underground. Wind turbines which remove carbon dioxide from the air could be a new approach for tackling climate change, and combining this technology with wind farms could lead to large quantities of CO2 being removed from the air streams created by turbines.
CCS has been used by fossil fuel companies for decades to capture CO2 when burning coal and natural gas. The fumes are passed over direct air capture systems, which consist of liquid or gel-based panels, trapping greenhouse gases and preventing them from being released into the environment. The extracted molecules are thenable to be transported into underground stores via pipelines.
Engineers at Purdue University, Indiana, suggest that by combining CCS with tall wind turbines they will be able to access the out of reach greenhouse gases which reside in the upper atmosphere. This includes areas of high CO2 concentration such as above factories, cities and power stations. They also hope that by using clean energy produced by wind farms and the existing pipeline networks, that the energy and financial costs associated with installing CCS mechanisms will be reduced.
As the need for cheap, renewable energy sources continues to rise there are concerns over whether more initiatives competing for wind-power should be developed. The American research group intends to use excess energy generated by the wind farms for extracting the CO2. This will have the added benefit of reducing energy waste in areas of the United States where energy production often exceeds usage. However, there is also uncertainty regarding the Earth’s underground storage capacity and the long-term impact of burying vast quantities of greenhouse gases.
Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) is a new field of research which could provide a solution. CCUS explores ways in which captured carbon can be recycled and locked into new materials such as cement, jet fuel, and plastics. The cement industry alone is responsible for approximately 8% of CO2 emissions worldwide, and so reusing this released CO2 will limit additional contributions to climate change from human sources and activities. While locking captured CO2 is beneficial for climate change, fashion companies such as Zara had partnered with LanzTech to release a sustainable clothing line which uses fabrics consisting of atmospheric CO2 in 2021.
Despite growing knowledge regarding limiting, or even reversing, mankind’s contribution to climate change, there are still significant time and financial costs associated with updating and creating infrastructure with technological advances. Wide-scale implementation of carbon capturing wind turbines, therefore, may still be some way from joining the fight against climate change.
