Re:Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and ...
by simonh on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @09:30AM
(#19849113)
> why extract from the air when you can just put a device on the smokestack of an existing coal or natural gas plant?
So you have spare available energy you can use to run the converter, and you also have a demand for energy that you're satisfying using a hydrocarbon powered generator. Why not reduce your hydrocarbon use in the first place, by substituting in the energy you were going to use in the converter? That seems to me to be an awful lot more efficient.
IMHO this technology really comes into it's own when you have available spare renewable energy, and want to find a way to store it in a dense, portable and easily reusable form. I think it's best thought of as a competitor to battery storage, but with the added benefit of extracting atmospheric CO2.
So you have spare available energy you can use to run the converter, and you also have a demand for energy that you're satisfying using a hydrocarbon powered generator. Why not reduce your hydrocarbon use in the first place, by substituting in the energy you were going to use in the converter? That seems to me to be an awful lot more efficient.
IMHO this technology really comes into it's own when you have available spare renewable energy, and want to find a way to store it in a dense, portable and easily reusable form. I think it's best thought of as a competitor to battery storage, but with the added benefit of extracting atmospheric CO2.