Can our environmental waste support us?

Carbon Capture is one way; turning old plastic into wearable items another; bio-mass digesters turn manure into energy;

What other innovations can we come up with to completely turn around the old pattern of  “Extract – Manufacture – Use – Toss”?

production-distribution-graphic

What if instead we had

  • Plan,
  • Extract only needed resource,
  • Produce as clean as possible,
  • Utilize well,
  • Put Waste back into Production if at all possible”

While not exactly able to utilize resources infinitely, this lemniscate demonstrates the continuing cycle of using resources in their different forms, even as waste, instead of wasting them.

  • This methodology would be a well thought out plan for any extraction or production.

 

Carbon Capture Quick Facts

  • Carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) technologies can capture up to 90 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from a power plant or industrial facility and store them in underground geologic formations.
  • Carbon capture has been established for some industrial processes, but it is still a relatively expensive technology that is just reaching maturity for power generation and other industrial processes.
  • There are fifteen active commercial-scale CCUS projects at industrial facilities around the world (eight of those projects are in the U.S.), and approximately 45 additional projects are in various stages of development around the world (Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute project list).
  • The world’s first commercial-scale CCUS power plant, SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station in Saskatchewan, Canada, became operational in October 2014. Two additional CCUS power plants are under construction in the United States – Southern Company’s Kemper County Energy Facility in Mississippi and NRG’s Petra Nova project in Texas.
  • There is a growing market for utilizing captured CO2, primarily in enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR). Selling captured CO2 provides a valuable revenue source to help overcome the high costs and financial risks of initial CCUS projects.
  • The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that CCUS can achieve 14 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed by 2050 to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (IEA CCS Roadmap).
  • CCUS can allow fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, to remain part of our energy mix, by limiting the emissions from their use.