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GE has a wild plan to ‘vacuum’ air
pollution right out of our skies —
Here’s how the mind-blowing idea would work
By Nick Paschal
May 30, 2023
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General Electric GE wild plan, Vacuum air
pollution© Provided by The Cool Down
It’s been decades since General
Electric (GE) made vacuums, but now, it’s getting back in
the game — only this time, the company will be vacuuming carbon
pollution out of the air.
GE announced the
successful test of its direct air capture (DAC) prototype and is
planning larger-scale demonstrations in 2024. If the company can
successfully scale its DAC system, it could be a massive weapon in the
fight against our overheating planet.
What is direct air capture?
Direct air capture uses chemical reactions to remove carbon
dioxide from the air. When air moves over the chemicals, it
selectively traps the carbon, leaving the other parts of the air to
pass through.
Once the carbon is successfully sucked out of the air and removed from
the chemicals — typically by applying heat — it can be injected deep
into the ground in geologic formations, never to be seen again, or
used in products like concrete or plastic that
will hold on tight to that carbon for a very long time.
How can direct air capture help?
There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than we need.
The concentration of atmospheric carbon pollution has increased
by 47% since the beginning of the Industrial Age. And if
that stat isn’t crazy enough, half of the increase in the last 300
years has happened since 1980.
Transitioning to clean
energy like solar, wind, and electric
vehicles is vital to reducing air-polluting gases, but just
slowing down how much carbon we pump into the air isn’t enough — and
that’s where DAC comes in.
Nature’s way of pulling carbon from the air is filtering it through
plants and trees, so cutting back on cutting down trees is important —
but again, it’s not enough. That’s why companies and scientists have
been focused on carbon
removal.
DAC is one of many solutions needed to pull enough carbon out of the
atmosphere to slow the devastating impacts of planet-warming gases.
Unlike other forms of carbon removal — like reforestation — DAC uses
relatively little space and has few restrictions on where it can be
located.
The DAC space is mostly full of startups and incumbent energy
companies. But a behemoth like GE has the ability to produce DAC
systems on a large enough scale to make a real difference.
“One thing … that we bring to bear is this ability to scale and scale
rapidly,” David Moore, a top GE carbon management official, told
Axios. “GE is arguably the best company in the world, at
least one of the best companies in the world when it comes to moving
large quantities of air.”
It’s too early to tell if DAC will grow to the size of the vacuum in “Spaceballs,”
but getting GE into the mix will give it a much better chance.
Guy J Swanson
Exactrix Global Systems
4501 East Trent Avenue
Spokane, Washington.
99212
509-535-9925 office.
509-995-1879 cell.
exactrix@exactrix.com
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
exactrix@exactrix.com
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