Heimdal - Removing Carbon Permanently
Current direct-air-capture models require prohibitive amounts of land and expensive infrastructure to operate. This is largely due to the low density of the atmosphere. But Heimdal circumvents this limitation by using the ocean as a contact point. With similar PPM CO2 and a much higher physical density, seawater is the perfect source for carbon dioxide extraction.
www.heimdalccu.com
Heimdal works on the principle of carbon capture utilization, which is the process of capturing CO2 and converting it into valuable products such as fuels and chemicals. It builds machines that permanently capture and store atmospheric CO2 and stabilize the oceans. Every year, 40 billion tonnes of CO2 are released. Using their process they permanently capture and store carbon dioxide from the sky while producing clean drinking water. The company is harnessing cheap renewable electricity and the sea to undo past and future emissions of CO2. They use electricity to extract the acid part of seawater, which has been increasing due to increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere. Extracting the carbon-genic acid allows for more CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere and restores stability to the oceans. They are building a scalable solution and the lowest cost of carbon captured directly from the atmosphere.
The average carbon footprint in the US is almost 16 tons whereas globally it is closer to 4 tons. It is generally considered that a tree can store about 167 kg of Co2 per year or 1 ton of Co2 per year for 6 mature trees. This means that more than 67 trees would have to be planted a year to offset the CO2 emissions of a single person. Heimdal's each 40ft shipping container extracts 1000 tons of CO2 every year. Direct Air Capture technology is expected to capture CO₂ much faster with significantly less land use and delivers the carbon in a pure, compressed CO₂ form that can then be stored permanently underground.
A carbon offset is a reduction or removal of emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. One ton of carbon offset represents the reduction or removal of one ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases and it's measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). These are viewed as an integral part of the policy tool to upgrade the economies and improve sustainability. As the world is moving towards the drastic changes of global warming there is an urgent need for carbon offset. The methods by which carbon dioxide be removed include afforestation, reforestation and forestry management, Carbon sequestration, Biosequestration, Agricultural practices, Wetland restoration, Bioenergy with carbon capture & storage, Direct air capture, and Magnesium silicate/oxide in cement. Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool whereas biosequestration is the capture and storage of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by continual or enhanced biological processes. Agricultural practices include carbon farming, the name for a variety of agricultural methods aimed at sequestering atmospheric carbon into the soil and in crop roots, wood, and leaves. Carbon farming aims to increase the rate at which carbon is sequestered into soil and plant material to create a net loss of carbon from the atmosphere. And the list goes on.
31 to 46 trees are needed to mitigate the effects of 1 tonne of CO2. The general planting of small trees ranges between $150 to $300 per tree, while a large tree will cost around $1500 to $ 3000. Not only that various other factors cost one along with the planting including the tree type, labor costs, types of equipment, permit or inspection fees, etc. whereas, with this technology it costs around $400–$500 million per unit, commercial technology can capture carbon at roughly $58.30 per metric ton of CO2, according to a DOE analysis.
Heimdal recycles wastewater by ocean-based direct air capture runs entirely on brine wastewater from the desalination process and renewable energy inputs. Secondly, It mineralizes Carbon dioxide by sequestering CO2 as calcium and magnesium carbonates, which form highly stable precipitate sands at the bottom of the seafloor. Its highly energy-efficient chemical process and rapidly scalable form factor enable impact on a timetable that gives humanity a chance to fight. Moreover, it uses electrolysis to alkalinize brine water returning to the ocean, offsetting the effects of ocean acidification and increasing oceanic carbon buffering. It creates renewable fuel that is hydrogen gas by the process of extracting acidity from concentrated brine.
Based on preliminary analysis, the global average atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2020 was 412.5 parts per million, setting a new record high amount despite the economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The jump of 2.6 ppm over 2019 levels was the fifth-highest annual increase in the 63-year record. Since 2000, the global atmospheric carbon dioxide amount has grown by 43.5 ppm, an increase of 12 percent. Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring greenhouse gas. Others include water vapor, methane, and nitrous oxide. These gases help keep the Earth warm by absorbing the sun's energy and by redirecting energy back to the Earth's surface. An increase in the amount of carbon dioxide creates an overabundance of greenhouse gases that trap additional heat. The excessive trapping of heat can cause the surface of the earth to heat up faster and cause glaciers to melt causing flooding and resulting in the migration of people and animals. About 30 percent of the carbon dioxide that people have put into the atmosphere has diffused into the ocean through the direct chemical exchange. Elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere cause it to dissolve in water vapor and form carbonic acid. Which is rained down as acid rain. Acid rain causes some physical damage to plants and pollutes both soil and water. Since 1750, the pH of the ocean’s surface has dropped by 0.1, a 30 percent change in acidity. The likely need for CDR (carbon dioxide removal) has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations like IPCC and UNFCC which deals with climate change.
The science behind this technology starts with reverse osmosis which is a water purification process that uses a semi-permeable membrane to filter out unwanted molecules and large particles such as contaminants and sediments like chlorine, salt, and dirt from water. Heimdal uses reverse osmosis, or seawater desalination, as an access point for salt-concentrated water. Secondly, electrolysis takes place in which an electrochemical cell separates the brine, extracting acids in the form of hydrochloric acid. The de-acidified solution is reintroduced to the sea which reacts with carbon dioxide through an ocean-atmosphere gas exchange, rebalancing the pH of the ocean to pre-industrial levels. When this interaction occurs above the calcite compensation depth (CCD), it prompts the restructuring of dissolved carbon dioxide into calcium and magnesium carbonates. As de-acidified brine reacts with dissolved CO2 and prompts the mineralization process, it also enables the oceans to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This provides immediate relief to rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere and the ocean simultaneously, while safely and naturally sequestering it for hundreds of thousands of years.
To mitigate the effects of carbon dioxide the company is putting efforts to design something which could not only capture the CO2 but also could be utilized in the better way possible. The moto is to de-acidify the ocean and return them to pre-industrial levels of carbon saturation and thus reversing global warming. The government needs to fund projects like these which are usually very costly after all it's for the benefit of all mankind. Also, the government needs to foster existing, pilot, or pre-commercial CCUS facilities that could connect to a regional CCS hub in the future and bring together a network of multiple greenhouse gas emitters enabling reductions in costs and risks for CCUS projects and large-scale abatement. On February 10, 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced up to $96 million in federal funding for projects that will develop point-source carbon capture technologies for natural gas power plants and industrial applications capable of capturing at least 95 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated.