My favourite technology story of 2024 evokes images from the late twenty-naughties, when scientists were grumbling about the supposed limitations of renewable hydrocarbons. Way back then, physicist Klaus Lackner had the audacity to write that, “carbon dioxide capture from ambient air could compensate for all carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere.”
The frick you say?
Make gasoline out of air?
It’s well worth wrapping your head around this.
Nature makes trees out of carbon dioxide (CO2) and water, which come from the air. Getting down to the crux of the matter, nature makes trees out of thin air (note 1 below). Petroleum chemists have thoroughly proven that they can make trees into gasoline. So. Really. Why should anyone have been surprised when Lackner said that gasoline can be made out of air? He’s not wrong. There’s more than enough carbon, hydrogen, and sunlight to fully satisfy future demand for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, without affected the earth’s climate.
Direct air capture of CO2 is the big story of 2024. Not because it’s new, but because hundreds of new companies are commercialising the idea. The New York Times called it “The New Gold Rush”. They reckon that 800 new start-up companies have been floated “in recent years” to harvest atmospheric carbon dioxide.
No stone is being left unturned. Some CO2 harvesting companies are scaling up well-proven carbon dioxide scrubbing techniques that were originally developed for providing breathable air on submarines and space-craft. Others are trying new concepts.
The oldest direct air capture companies have already proven they can make “direct cycle” liquid fuels. We cannot expect direct cycle hydrocarbons to come into the market until there’s an international effort to phase out fossil raw materials from the product of gasoline (petrol), diesel, and jet fuel. Right now, direct capture companies expect to earn their keep by extracting CO2 from the air on behalf of companies and individuals who want to “offset” fossil or mineral CO2 emissions.
Some folk have been commercialising direct air capture technology for at least twenty years. What I like about this story is not that the technology is new, or important, or that it will eventually become the basis of climate engineering on the Earth, and quite likely on Mars.
This is the best technology story of 2024 because large-scale mainstream investors are paying attention. That’s why the New York Times called it a gold rush.
We are technorg.
Note 1: Trees also contain trace elements and nutrients. However, these make up only a tiny fraction of the total weight of the tree. Most of the tree’s weight consists of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, converted into wood, leaves, roots etc. from CO2 and water by solar-powered chemical reactions.