![]() ![]() Together, they generate concentrated streams of CO2 that can then be compressed and sent straight to underground wells for storage. There are many reactors within one module, each running at its own pace so that they're constantly collecting CO2. Once the filters are fully saturated, the reactor goes offline so that the filters can be heated up to separate out the CO2. Within about 30 to 40 minutes, the filters have absorbed all the CO2 they can. The filters capture about 75 percent of the CO2 from the air that passes over them. ![]() Inside each of the 40-foot modules are about 16 "reactors" with "sorbent cartridges" that essentially act as filters that attract CO2. The plan is to deploy more modules in Wyoming over time and potentially manufacture the modules there one day, too. ![]() Those modules will collectively have the capacity to remove about 12,000 tons of CO2 a year from the air. In the first phase of the project, expected to be completed next year, around 25 modules will be deployed in Wyoming. At first, the modules used for Project Bison will be made at CarbonCapture's headquarters in Los Angeles. The plant itself will be made of modules that look like stacks of shipping containers with vents that air passes through. If all goes smoothly by 2030, the operation will be orders of magnitude larger than existing direct air capture projects.ĬarbonCapture's equipment is modular, which is what the company says makes the technology easy to scale up. It'll start small and work up to 5 million metric tons a year. A Los Angeles-based company called CarbonCapture is building the facility, called a direct air capture (DAC) plant, that is expected to start operations as early as next year. The CO2 can then be stored deep within the Earth, keeping it out of the atmosphere, where it would have continued to heat up the planet. The Verge reports: The goal of the new endeavor, called Project Bison, is to build a new facility capable of drawing down 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually by 2030. "The decline in vulture populations in many regions of the world, such as Africa and Asia, has produced a concomitant loss of the ecosystem services vultures produce," Plaza says.Ī couple of climate tech startups plan to suck a hell of a lot of carbon dioxide out of the air and trap it underground in Wyoming. The situation outside of the Americas stands in stark contrast. Environmental Protection Agency, that is akin to taking 2.6 million cars off the road each year. Collectively, vultures in the Americas keep about 12 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent out of the atmosphere annually. Three species found only in the Americas - the Black, Turkey and Yellow-headed vultures - are responsible for 96 percent of all vulture-related emissions mitigation worldwide, Plaza and his colleagues found. It occurs mostly in the Americas, says the study's lead author Pablo Plaza, a biologist at the National University of Comahue in Argentina. The avoided emissions may not sound like much, but multiply those estimates by the estimated 134 million to 140 million vultures around the world, and the number becomes more impressive: tens of millions of metric tons of emissions avoided per year.īut this ecosystem service is not evenly distributed around the world. But many carcasses are composted or buried by humans, which result in more emissions than natural decay, so vulture consumption can avert even more emissions when replacing those methods. This estimate assumes that carcasses not eaten by vultures are left to decay. Left uneaten, each kg of naturally decomposing carcass emits about 0.86 kg of CO2 equivalent. It calculates that an individual vulture eats between 0.2 and one kilogram (kg) of carcass per day, depending on the vulture species. But most of these emissions can be prevented if vultures get to the remains first, a new study in Ecosystem Services shows. This cleanup provides a vital service to both ecosystems and humans: it keeps nutrients cycling and controls pathogens that could otherwise spread from dead animals to living ones.ĭecaying animal bodies release greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane. With their impressive vision and the range they can cover in their long, soaring flights, the 22 species of vultures found around the world are often the first scavengers to discover and feed on a carcass. And new research adds to that positive picture by detailing these birds' role in a surprising process: mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. But in reality, vultures are nature's flying sanitation crew. They are an obligate scavenger, meaning they get all their food from already dead prey - and that association has cast them as a harbinger of death since ancient times. An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American: Vultures are hard birds for humans to love. ![]()
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