John Timmer
Global emissions continue to eat up the carbon budget. That means we’re getting closer to putting in enough CO each year.2 In an atmosphere that grapples with warming of more than 2°C. As such, the development of carbon capture technologies will be essential to lower atmospheric levels after overshooting and offset emissions from industries struggling to decarbonise.
So far, however, beyond a limited number of demonstration projects, little progress has been made towards carbon capture. However, this is starting to change as some commercial ventures begin to find uses for carbon dioxide or offer removal as a service to companies with internal emissions targets. Also, the Biden administration recently announced its intention to fund several large-scale capture facilities.
However, I recently visited a very different carbon capture facility. It’s a facility so small that it occupies the equivalent of a handful of parking spaces in the basement of a New York City apartment block. Thanks to local laws, it could be the first of many. CarbonQuest, the company that installed it, already has commitments from several more buildings, and New York City law says It is designed so that the incentive to install a similar system grows over time.
carbon city
With so many large buildings, New York City has a dizzying variety of fossil fuel-burning hardware hidden behind basements and facades. All major buildings require significant hardware to provide heat and hot water, and many use cogeneration facilities that generate electricity on-site and use waste heat for these purposes. These cogeneration plants can be very large if they serve a university campus or one of the major hospitals in the city. There is also a steam system that boils water at a central facility and distributes it to many buildings through pipes.
So while dense urban housing has low per capita emissions, New York’s individual sources are still sizable and difficult to decarbonize quickly. The long-term goal is to switch everything to electric and reduce emissions by improving the grid, but some of this equipment will be decades old. These are decades that New York City’s climate goals don’t allow.
As a result, the city passed Local Law 97, which sets emissions-based fines starting next year and increasing over time. The fine is not related to how the emissions are reduced, but it allows us to continue using modern hardware as long as not enough carbon reaches the atmosphere. is based on running
The company’s CEO, Shane Johnson, told Ars:
CarbonQuest systems are designed to work with any hardware that burns natural gas, including boilers and cogeneration systems. The exhaust gases from these systems are diverted to coolers and dehumidifiers to extract water. The remaining gas is pressurized and exposed to a solid material that selectively retains CO.2When the remaining gases (mainly nitrogen and oxygen) are removed, carbon dioxide is returned. It is then pressurized again and stored as a liquid until the truck is retrieved.
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One of two gas-fired boilers in the basement of a home that CarbonQuest has installed hardware for.
John Timmer
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A diverter directs a portion of the exhaust gas from the flue to the carbon capture system.
John Timmer
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Almost all systems, like this compressor, consist of off-the-shelf hardware from other suppliers.
John Timmer
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The first step is to remove water vapor from the exhaust gas.
John Timmer
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As a first time install, CarbonQuest has helpfully labeled many of its components.
John Timmer
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The tank on the right is one of half a dozen tanks where carbon dioxide is separated from other gases by compression/decompression cycles.
John Timmer
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Final product ready for pickup.
John Timmer
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The system has a modular design, defined here by a palette outlined in blue metal. When placed, pipes connect hardware from different pallets.
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Tying everything together is a suite of monitoring hardware that ensures the system is working properly and flags when there is enough carbon dioxide worth picking up.
John Timmer
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This is the only exposed part of the entire system. A truck can collect liquid carbon dioxide by connecting it to a valve in that box.
John Timmer
The process is electrically powered and requires no consumables. “These plants are smaller. They need to operate 24/7, require less maintenance, and cannot use toxic chemicals,” he said Johnson. “Look, they can’t have a man in a white suit.”
The system is modular and can be built from a series of pallets that fit in a typical freight elevator. This also allows the system to be scaled up to handle a higher volume of facilities.
