Is capturing carbon directly from power plants possible? And is there any useful applications for the captured carbon?

Question

Title.

I feel like the only way electric cars can be truly “environment friendly” is if the carbon produced is captured at the plants.

Not sure if it’s at all possible, though.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

*Possible?* Yes, there are ways to do that.

*Practical?* Absolutely not.

The problem with the vast, vast majority of “carbon capture” technology is that it costs more energy to capture the carbon than you get from burning the fuel in the first place.

Carbon capture only has value if it is (a) mostly passive, (b) requires little to no energy to run, and (c) captures carbon at a greater rate than we actually produce it. No existing method does this, and many, *many* people have tried, because if this were possible, it would basically let us keep doing what we’re doing without worrying about switching to clean, non-carbon-emitting energy sources.

Electric cars can be more environmentally friendly than gasoline in a variety of ways. Firstly, if you live in an area that already gets almost all of its energy from clean sources. I live near a very large river that flows into the Pacific ocean, which has several dams across it that generate hydroelectric power. As a result, apart from the occasional use of natural gas to shore up electric load, my state uses nearly 100% non-carbon-emitting energy sources, so our electricity is almost completely “clean.” Likewise, countries like France, which generate most of their electricity from nuclear power, can similarly recharge their electric vehicles with energy sources that don’t emit carbon.

If we can develop a functional fusion reactor, that would allow us to generate clean energy pretty much anywhere, but that’s still a physics dream, not meaningfully practical yet. (My hopes are on the Wendelstein 7-X “stellarator” reactor and related startups, because unlike a tokamak design, a stellarator can produce *continuous plasma.*) Until that day hopefully arrives, we’re dependent on wind, solar, tidal, and geothermal power–all of which have serious limitations. (Hydroelectric is obviously also nice, but the vast majority of hydropower sources are *already in use,* so there’s no further potential for *new* clean energy there.)