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A comment on Revolutionary Electrolyzer Efficiently Converts CO2 into Renewable Propane Fuel. Parent comment

Re:Revolutionary Electrolyzer Efficiently Converts CO2 into ... by marcosdumay on Tuesday August 22, 2023 @10:39AM (#37223402)
Taking the carbon from the atmosphere will always be more expensive than from some carbon-rich rocks that form a huge fraction of the Earth's crust.

In fact, our most effective ways to take carbon out of the atmosphere today all involve a step of letting some mineral turn into one of this carbon-rich ones, and extracting it from there.

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Re:Revolutionary Electrolyzer Efficiently Converts CO2 into ... by idiotsecant on Tuesday August 22, 2023 @11:53AM (#37224528)
It'll always be more expensive to extract carbon from the atmosphere, but if it produces a valuable byproduct and the power to run the process is very cheap (excess solar) it might still pencil out.
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Re:Revolutionary Electrolyzer Efficiently Converts CO2 into ... by marcosdumay on Tuesday August 22, 2023 @01:11PM (#37225707)
I fail to see anything that doesn't apply equally to the rocks.
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Re:Revolutionary Electrolyzer Efficiently Converts CO2 into ... by neolefty on Tuesday August 22, 2023 @03:55PM (#37227748)
When you have surplus photovoltaic capacity — an increasingly common situation — you could turn it to electrolysis. You still have to pay for the equipment, but it sounds like it could be pretty cheap.

It would cut out the cost of mining, and possibly a lot of transportation costs, if you can use the products nearby.

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