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| A year is 8766 hours, so that 50 kilowatts of electricity and 150 kilowatts of heat averaged over time. | A year is 8766 hours, so that is 50 kilowatts of electricity and 150 kilowatts of heat averaged over time. |
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| However, 4000 tonnes of capture per year is 100 parts per billion of the current CO₂ emission rate. Capturing ALL current CO₂ emissions would require 5e4x1e7 = 500 GW of electric power and 1500 GW of heat power. Or quite a bit more if the electricity is combustion-generated. Global electricity production on 2024 was 32,000 terawatt hours, averaging 3600 GW, so we would need to increase average global power production by more than 40% ... though most of that is heat, which can be generated with MANY square kilometers of solar heat collectors. | However, 4000 tonnes of capture per year is 100 parts per billion of the current CO₂ emission rate. Capturing ALL current CO₂ emissions would require 5e4x1e7 = 500 GW of electric power and 1500 GW of heat power. Or quite a bit more if the electricity is combustion-generated. Global electricity production on 2024 was 32,000 terawatt hours, averaging 3600 GW, so we would need to increase average global electric power production by more than 40% ... though most of that energy/power is heat, which can be generated with 90,000 square kilometers of solar heat collectors generating [[ https://solarthermalworld.org/news/solar-thermal-shows-highest-energy-yield-square-metre/ | 150 kWh/m2-y ]] of solar heat. |
Geochemical Carbon Capture
Many talk about permanent sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide into permanent ( >kiloyear) underground geological formations. In 2026, only Climeworks (wikipedia) in Iceland is doing this at kilotonne/year scale.
Annual CO₂ emissions worldwide is approximately 40 billion tonnes per year, not including changes from land use, clearing jungle with fire, etc.
Climeworks captures 4000 tonnes per year, using 444 kWh of electricity and 1333 kWh of geothermal heat per tonne captured. A year is 8766 hours, so that is 50 kilowatts of electricity and 150 kilowatts of heat averaged over time.
Geothermal energy also emits CO₂ during extraction, perhaps 40 grams per kWh, less than 100 tonnes for the numbers above, so it is "clean enough" for carbon capture.
However, 4000 tonnes of capture per year is 100 parts per billion of the current CO₂ emission rate. Capturing ALL current CO₂ emissions would require 5e4x1e7 = 500 GW of electric power and 1500 GW of heat power. Or quite a bit more if the electricity is combustion-generated. Global electricity production on 2024 was 32,000 terawatt hours, averaging 3600 GW, so we would need to increase average global electric power production by more than 40% ... though most of that energy/power is heat, which can be generated with 90,000 square kilometers of solar heat collectors generating 150 kWh/m2-y of solar heat.
This 2023 journal paper describes the chemistry of geological CO2 storage.