Trains could be modified to hoover up carbon dioxide as they cross the country

[Judi Lynn]

By Jason Goodyer
Published: 20th July, 2022 at 16:00

A single train fitted with the system could remove thousands of tonnes of carbon every year.



A visualisation of the team's design.Retrofitting direct air capture tech to trains to recover CO2 could help us get back on track in the fight against climate change, a study carried out at the University of Toronto has found.

The tech is already well established, but stationary, ground-based facilities require a lot of land. This has historically led to many residents in the areas near to proposed sites objecting to their construction, the researchers say.

“It’s a huge problem because most everybody wants to fix the climate crisis, but nobody wants to do it in their backyard,” said co-author Prof Geoffrey Ozin, director of the solar fuels group at the University of Toronto.

“Rail-based direct air capture cars would not require zoning or building permits and would be transient and generally unseen by the public.”

More:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/trains-could-be-modified-to-hoover-up-carbon-dioxide-as-they-cross-the-country/

[Vogon_Glory]

1. There's a cute little problem here

Most North American trains are powered by internal combustion Diesel engines and kick up a fairish amount of emissions themselves.

[Javaman]

2. That's okay, it wall make them carbon neutral 😀nt

Last edited Fri Jul 22, 2022, 07:31 AM - Edit history (1)

[Random Boomer]

5. They're already running

The emissions of trains would be an issue if they were only used for scrubbing or the scrubbing delayed the decommissioning of trains. But if they're already running, what's the downside?

[SCantiGOP]

3. Sounds like a very logical approach

perhaps the same could be done to all transport - cars, airplanes and ships.

[NNadir]

4. Only the head of a solar fuels group could take this seriously.

It's rather typical for this type to ignore scale and thermodynamics.

[cstanleytech]

6. The US alone releases something like 5 million a year so a few thousand is not even a drop

in the bucket.
No, the best 2 options (currently) to address the problem are options that would be extremely unpopular.
#1 Do away with automobiles for personal use and invest in an electrical mass transit rail system nationwide.

Why? Because the personal usage of automobiles is a huge contributor to the problem we have with carbon.

#2 Invest in more nuclear plants.

Why? Because on a square footage cost nuclear currently offers the biggest bang for the buck. Solar and wind can help in certain cases but solar and wind have limitations and drawbacks and that's excluding the drawback of the materials to make them.
First is the amount of land needed for both and second is each has a rather unique problem.
With solar its that it can only generate power if and only if there is sunlight.
For wind its the that you literally cannot have power without wind which is a problem they are having in some parts of Texas where they have some rather large wind farms but little to no wind due the heatwave that's been sitting over the area.
That is probably something we are going to see more and more of as our climate continues to shift.