Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jim Hurt, who is a board member of the Renewable Nations Institute. These views are not from RNI, which is developing work-study curriculums for sustainable energy.
In gloom, there is light. The “blue wave” evaporated. Yet, Joe Biden won by a silent prayer for democracy and climate. Before that, Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act passed with tripartisan support, despite Gov. Phil Scott’s veto. A climate council has been chaired by the governor’s administrator to review detailed recommendations, even while Scott prepares a legal challenge. Now what? Now the council will seek to identify faster, more effective methods to a) reduce carbon dioxide emission, b) remove carbon dioxide from air, we may hope, and in effect, c) create jobs in a pandemic.
For that matter, the virus may still unite us to address climate, racism and unemployment all at once. Black jobs matter in the Green New Deal. Native citizens deserve a new green deal of their own and have a vital role to play in America’s energy future. Immigrants need work on the way to full citizenship. Most whites have to start over. We can reopen responsibly and gradually with strict distancing, real science and new CO2 solutions that create jobs.
This letter is to echo both a warning and a remedy for climate and economy. The warning is that existing agendas to save climate – renewables, efficiency, carbon offsets, renewable energy credits, sustainable practices – are all well and good, indeed excellent, but will not work fast enough by themselves to prevent a “runaway” greenhouse effect. Net-zero carbon by 2050 is too slow. We need to be net-negative by 2030 or at least 2035. “Wining slowly is the same as losing,” Bill McKibben has said. So, we need to do more in addition to what Progressives, Democrats and enlightened Republicans, like Gov. Scott, are plotting and planning for climate and jobs at this critical time.
Now new chemistry makes it profitable to convert all central plants that emit CO2 into negative carbon, power and storage stations that remove CO2 from air in two stages. At the heart of this approach is a power plant or engine that is designed to capture and reuse its own CO2 emission as supplemental fuel. This proven methodology with legalization of industrial hemp and refinement of many farm crops, opens the way to an agrarian revolution in energy markets. Farmers, utilities, Progressives, Democrats and conservatives can now join hands to capitalize on the profitable reuse of CO2 emission and the Paris Climate Treaty.
Carbon Trap: The first stage (4-6 years) will reduce direct CO2 emission from a typical coal, gas or wood plant by at least 90%, not counting upstream CO2. Dozens of CO2 research groups now report: a) far better ways to capture CO2, and b) new catalysts that convert CO2 with H2O into H2 (for NH3) or methane, methanol or biodiesel in one step. Burning fuel derived from CO2 in the same plant or engine that the CO2 is from insures that at least 90% of direct CO2 emission is captured, reused, kept out of the air and accounted for. Plant operators can benefit nicely from lower fuel cost, storage operations and subsidies and/or carbon offsets via cap and trade markets as seen in the Europe Union and widely anticipated in China, the U.S. and most nations. CO2 can also be reused to make concrete, plastic, carbon fiber and graphene, according to Robert Service at Science, AAAS and several MIT sources.
The second stage (6-10 years) will complete the conversion of a typical fossil plant into a negative emission station by gradually replacing fossil fuels (or forest chips) with biofuels, i.e. methanol and biodiesel primarily from farms, because forests need protection. Vermont farmers and most farmers need new cash crops. Biofuels and H2 can be made from CO2 and H2O or from hemp, pine, poplar, switchgrass, kelp, algae and other farm crops. As living plants remove CO2 from air, then biofuel power stations that reuse CO2 for extra fuel will actuate negative emissions, as defined by the Center For Negative Carbon Emissions. If most plants are “neutral” and the rest “negative,” then on balance, the whole power/storage system can become net-negative within 10 years. Over that time, neutral plants can gradually convert to biofuels to realize negative emissions on an industrial scale. A third stage of adaptation offers alternate transport fuels. Imagine a plug-in Prius that runs on NH3 or a biodiesel vehicle that reuses CO2 exhaust to make biodiesel for that vehicle. Admittedly, not all biomass is equal with respect to sustainability or CO2. Monoculture palm oil, corn ethanol and forest chips are the worst offenders now. Hemp, pine, poplar and other farm crops can be cultivated sustainably with electrification of farm machinery to cut upstream CO2.
Vermont Yankee: Optimal plant design should combine photovoltaic and batteries with biofuel generation and storage via the switching yard. Besides, storage is vital for grid security and to back up rapid growth of intermittent wind and photovoltaic. Vermont’s wood plants and Vermont Yankee are ideal candidates for repurposing by this approach. And farmers can run small negative emission plants on biofuels they produce while reusing CO2 for extra fuel. Cow and hemp power can unite to save the world. Companies like Vermont’s Native Energy are poised to cultivate this fecund and budding field.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Green New Deal say we must “reduce” CO2 emissions and “remove” CO2 from air and, in order to do this, we need massive new energy infrastructure within 10 years. The Sierra Club, like most Progressives, want to close coal plants and replace them with distributed renewables and storage. They support by varying degrees a carbon tax or price or subsidies. They favor efficiency and terrestrial sequestration, i.e. nurturing forests and sustainable agriculture with biochar to remove CO2 from air. These measures are all very good but will not work fast enough to stop a run-away greenhouse effect. The missing ingredient in climate prescriptions from Democrats, Progressives, green new dealers and environmentalists in general is a fast and profitable way to “remove” CO2 from air. Meanwhile, despite closures in some industrialized countries, the total number of fossil plants worldwide is going up. The majority will persist for well over 20 years. Yet, the Sierra Club’s climate plan does not include the profitable conversion of fossil plants from massive CO2 emitters into major CO2 removers. So then plants and jobs will close and local economies suffer too? Look what happened in Vernon after Vermont Yankee shut down.
Still, the best way to remove CO2 from air is Mother Earth’s way — growing vegetation. Accordingly, farm biofuel can gradually replace fossil fuels over 6-10 years if it’s lucrative to do so. In this way, CO2 emission from biofuel, power and storage stations can be reused to make extra fuel for the same furnace or engine that the CO2 is from, thereby removing CO2 from air and justifying and accumulating carbon offsets and/or renewable energy credits. So we can power and drive our way to a healthy climate and lives if only we follow the science, as Dr. Anthony Fauci has said.
To sum, Vermont saved the union at Gettysburg and now can save the union and climate by setting the right example.
