reattach@lemmy.worldtoNews@lemmy.world•Illinois Carbon Capture Project Captures Almost No Carbon
10·
4 days agoIn this case, the carbon is being captured is a concentrated stream resulting from ethanol fermentation (point source capture). It’s more efficient than capturing carbon from the air (direct air capture) due to the much higher initial concentration.
What’s interesting about the facility in the article is that it’s not capturing carbon from fossil fuels: it’s capturing CO2 generated from the fermentation of ethanol. That means the CO2 came from plants (corn), which is known as biogenic CO2. If low carbon electricity is used to capture biogenic CO2, the net result is a lowering of the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. That’s in addition to the energy content of the ethanol, which could displace fossil fuels.
Carbon capture isn’t the sole solution, but could be part of it.