Dealing with climate change requires some big bold ideas.
Here are four innovative approaches scientists and entrepreneurs are working on that I’m excited about:
Carbon capture. The idea here is to suck greenhouse gases out of the air. I think this is probably the approach we’ll have to take with cement; rather than making it without emissions, we’ll remove the emissions before they can do any damage. There are two basic approaches: One is to grab the greenhouse gases right where they’re created, such as at a cement plant (that’s called carbon capture); the other is to pull them from the atmosphere, after they’ve dispersed. That’s called direct-air capture, and it’s a big technical challenge that various companies are trying to solve. Mosaic Materials, for example, is developing new nano-materials that could make direct-air capture much more efficient and cost-effective. And government policies that create financial incentives to use carbon-removal technology—like federal tax credits that were passed in 2018—will help us deploy it faster.
Electrification. We may be able to replace fossil fuels with electricity in some industrial processes. For example, as you saw if you watched the video above, Boston Metal is working on a way to make steel using electricity instead of coal, and to make it just as strong and cheap. Of course, electrification only helps reduce emissions if it uses clean power, which is another reason why it’s so important to get zero-carbon electricity.
Fuel switching. Some industrial processes can’t easily be electrified because they require too much heat. One possible alternative is to get the heat from a next-generation nuclear plant. (As I’ve mentioned before, a company that I helped start, TerraPower, uses an approach called a traveling wave reactor that is safe, prevents proliferation, and creates very little waste.) We also might be able to get the heat using hydrogen fuels, which can be made using clean electricity and don’t emit any carbon when they’re burned. Hydrogen fuels exist today, but they’re expensive to make and transport, so companies are trying to drive the cost down and make hydrogen fuels available at scale. The Swedish steelmaker SSAB plans to build the world’s first fossil fuel-free steel plant powered by hydrogen, which will be running as a pilot project next year. ThyssenKrupp and ArcelorMittal also recently announced projects in this area.
Recycling. On its own, recycling steel, cement, and plastic won’t be nearly enough to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, but it will help. The best book I’ve read on recycling is called Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open, and I highly recommend it. That will be my next book review on chocksnotes.com
Comments