Climate Fear - History of CDR and Geoengineering
Bruce Melton -- Austin, Texas
CDR Group,
I posted this to several other lists and did not realize the CDR
group was not among the recipients. I am almost certain I have
sent the History of Carbon Dioxide Removal before, probably more
than once. It has matured a little, but there's a new project I am
working on: A history of Geoengineering. Though not CDR, it is
very close because CDR does reduce future emissions and future
atmospheric concentration of GHGs by cooling Earth and reducing
natural feedback emissions.
You can read the thread below my History Project post. The thread was spurred by a post by McKibben with a theme of climate change fear. This fear is of course one of the big things degrading awareness. Below is my $25 cents worth on my "History" projects and how narratives like these can lessen fear and advance awareness.
Cheers,
Bruce
--
Bruce Melton PE
Director, Climate Change Now Initiative, 501c3
President, Melton Engineering Services Austin
8103 Kirkham Drive
Austin, Texas 78736
(512)799-7998
ClimateDiscovery.org
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POSTED by Bruce Melton on 10/25/2023
Fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all. (Except for
spiders of course.)
Below are two discussion on my path to tame the unknown. Both
carbon dioxide removal and geoengineering are things we have been
doing for a century with known side effects - very well known with
carbon dioxide removal processes that are 100 years old, as well
as with respiratory disease impacts from human emitted aerosols
that have been geoengineering Earth's climate for 150 years.
Many of you may have seen my History of Carbon Dioxide Removal since the great heat bomb in Texas and the world got really steaming. I have been kicking around a new title for this discussion:
How Beer, Vitamines (note the spelling) and Submarines Will Be Responsible for Climate Restoration
I have also just started a new one and would appreciate input.
This one is A History of Geoengineering. Both are
intended to dispel the myth that these processes or strategies are
new, dangerous and need more research. Carbon dioxide removal and
geoengineering are things that we have been doing in a widespread
way for 100 years or more.
My latest edition is about marine cloud brightening condensation trails (cloud trails) from ship's exhaust that have been geoengineering Earth for a century or more. These cloud trails mask warming because of the reflectivity of the clouds produced, reflecting far more of the sun's energy back into space before it can be converted into heat energy that is then trapped by the greenhouse effect. These condensation trails are (basically) created by sulfate emissions from burning fossil fuels, very similar to those from high altitude air travel except at high altitude they trap warming like a blanket. At low altitude they reflect sunlight back into space and cool Earth, not warm it. New air pollution regulations in shipping and in China are now limiting sulfate emissions and unmasking warming. These regulations are very similar to those created in North America and Europe in the 1970s to control air pollution too. These new regulations are one of the major causes for the outsized jump in global temperature this year. Cooling sulfate aerosols are responsible for masking about half of the warming we should have experienced to date. We have been implementing this type of geoengineering for a century and have very accurate and repeated findings that show exactly the impacts created with deaths from respiratory disease.
As for input; does anyone have other instances? One I am thinking
about is deforestation and degradation or elimination of the cloud
machine. Albedo geoengineering may be one too, like from
grasslands or forests to farmlands. I don't have much or any
science on these two though. Hansen's latest on sulfates spawned
this first in the series on the history of geoengineering.
(very appropriately) Cheers,
B
A History of Geoengineering
Ship trails from aerosols emitted by burning fossil fuels created these cloud trails across the North Pacific in September 2009. Image: NASA
We Have Been Geoengineering Around the Globe Since Shipping Was First Powered by Fossil Fuels 150 Years Ago
Sulfur in shipping fuel when burned emits sulfate aerosols that create a chemical reaction that enhances the formation of clouds. The clouds then reflect sunlight back into space before it can cause heating on Earth and be trapped by the greenhouse effect. This is geoengineering. It can cool Earth in many of its forms but this one in particular is quite meaningful today. The astonishing rise in temperature in 2023 is plausibly a response to new air pollution regulations in shipping and China, that limit the amount of sulfur in fuels. This limit on sulfur in fossil fuels in turn limits the cooling created by the emitted sulfates. Because of this unmasking of warming, plus a moderate El Nino, it is appearing quite plausible we will hit 1.6 to 1.7 degrees C warming above the late 19th century in 2024 (see here). With a normal 0.2 C to 0.3 C cooling rebound after El Nino, this means it is plausible will will not fall below 1.5 C again; until we restore our climate of course, which current climate policy will not do. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggest that half of warming that we should have experienced to date has been masked by these cooling aerosols emitted from burning fossil fuels (1). This example of geoengineering (or direct cooling), and then reverse geoengineering with the air pollution regulations limiting sulfur in fossils fuels, gives us a historic example of geoengineering our culture has been performing since shipping powered by fossil fuels began.
(1) IPCC tells us 57% of warming has been masked by cooling
aerosols... IPCC 2013 Summary for Policy Makers (SPM), page 13,
C. Drivers of Climate Change, bullet 7. Up to (-)1.9 to (-)
0.1Wm(-2) of warming has been masked by aerosols out of 2.29
Wm(-2) (Bullet 1) of total warming experienced to date. This
equals 57 percent of total warming masked by aerosols and does
represent the high end of the range.
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf
Further information – Summary for Policy Makers, Drivers of
Climate Change, page 14, bullet 10, Figure SPM.5/
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WG1AR5_all_final.pdf
Note: This is a draft run at this narrative. Several things are blurred like the chemical reaction with sulfates that creates condensation nuclei, plus the fact that El Nino effects do not significantly manifest until the winter after Central Pacific warming is recognized, plus the fact that the lag from our just ended triple-dip La Nina was suppose to create a summer that was nowhere near as record breaking as we endured, plus the issue with the Tonga eruption and plausible warming instead of cooling from sulfates. A longer narrative would include these things but the shorter narrative is important for reader usability. Too much science spoils the broth.
A History of Carbon Dioxide Removal
Nobel
Prize winner Carl Linde was the first to remove carbon dioxide
from air. His technology was developed from his refrigeration
discovery that itself was first used in the 1870s to help the
brewing industry in Bavaria overcome limitations on summer
season brewing and beer storage that was plagued by bacterial
contamination that soured the beer, where from 1553 to 1850
summer brewing was literally banned between April 23 and
September 29. After 1850, brewers learned to brew over produce
in march and April and store their beer in caves where they
had stockpiled winter ice. By 1890 Linde had sold 747 of his
“ice machines” and summer brewing was flourishing. In 1892
Guinness contracted with Linde to build a CO2 liquefaction
plant to sell excess CO2 from fermentation as an industrial
chemical. This set in motion the ultra-cold refrigeration
technology that Linde used in cryoseparation to distill the
components of air into usable products that included not only
carbon dioxide but, oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. The
cryoseparation technology first supercools air to a liquid,
then evaporates the liquid in a tall column where the
temperature rises upwards in the column, condensing individual
components at different temperatures, much like water vapor
condenses in clouds to make rain. Carl von Linde was awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913 for his development of
refrigeration technology.
Image
Caption: The WWII Gato-Balao Class submarines were the first US subs to
use the potash process to remove CO2 from submarine air to
keep our sailors safe from CO2 poisoning.
Early 20th Century Air Capture of CO2
In 1904 the recyclable lime-potash process was discovered to separate CO2 from air as a simple chemical reaction using extremely common potash and lime. In 1930 the first patent was issued for an ammonia-based process that used amines to remove CO2 from air. Notable applications were in submarines in World War II to keep our sailors safe form carbon dioxide poisoning. Also in World War II, the Habor-Bosch Process was developed to synthesize ammonia from hydrocarbons in Germany, mostly for explosives, as the Allies had cut off the German supplies of guano needed to generate the ammonia. This process became an extremely important process globally in synthesizing fertilizers. An important part of this process is removing CO2 to allow the formation of ammonia. This CO2 removal process advanced the state of amine technology for removal of CO2 from air. These three processes are mature today and represent some of the most important industrial processes known to humankind. Their components are widespread in industry making their implementation into a scaled atmospheric CO2 removal infrastructure a challenge of motivation and money, not technology.
NOTES:
Slide Summary: Below are references to the three major, mature carbon dioxide removal technologies, their discoveries and invention and notable developments in these technologies: Cryoseparation, recyclable lime/potash, and amines.
Cryoseparation
of air… Carl von Linde was a Novel Prize Winner in
1913 for his refrigeration invention and advancements in
science of distillation of the constituent components of air
(cryoseparation). In 1897, Carl von Linde gave up his
professorship at the Technical University of Munich to found
"Linde's Ice Machine Company." This company made possible one
of the greatest developments of the human culture of all time
– summer beer. Historically, summer beer was contaminated by
different warm tolerant bacteria that fouled the beer. In
Bavaria in Linde's early years, summer brewing of beer was
strictly forbidden because of what would later be understood
as bacterial contamination in warm weather. Linde's
refrigerator made summer beer possible. Linde had sold 747 of
his ice machines by 1890. In 1892 Guinness Brewing contracted
with Linde to build a carbon dioxide liquefaction plant. In
1894 Linde began his famous work liquefying air and distilling
it into its constituent components.
In 1897 Linde was knighted as Ritter von Linde. In 1913 Linde
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in
refrigeration and cryoseparation of air.
Potash/Potassium Carbonate… A US patent granted in 1904, described a process for absorbing CO2 in a hot solution of potassium carbonate and then stripping the solution by pressure reduction without additional heating (Behrens, 1904).
Potash/ Lye… Giammarco was the first to patent an activated potash solution in 1955, and there are now a number of such processes - Kohl and Riesenfeld mentions some - they are still widely applied.
Haber-Bosch process… This was an extremely important process developed just before WWI that allowed nitrogen production for use in explosives and fertilizers, with a key part of the process being the CO2 removal. It was a German invention because the Allies controlled all the guano deposits that were the nitrogen source. CO2 is a byproduct of the process and development of removal processes played an important role in advanced amine processes today.
WWII – Lime/Potash and Amines: Keeping our sailors safe from CO2 Poisoning… The history of CO2 removal in submarines begins in World War II… "Air monitoring was by colorimetric tubes, soda lime was used to remove carbon dioxide and oxygen candles provide a source of oxygen replenishment." With the advent of long submerse times with nuclear submarines , amines were used to scrub CO2 from submarine air.
Mazurek, Key
developments in submarine air monitoring and purification,
SAMAP Proceedings, October 2015.
https://www.sonistics.com/wp-content/uploads/SAMAP-15-Proceedings.pdf
Mention of
soda ash and amines…
https://www.sonistics.com/wp-content/uploads/A-Brief-History-of-Submarine-Air-Quality.pdf
Amines… In 1930, Robert Bottoms was awarded a patent for removing CO2 from air with amines. The discovery of amines was first published in 1911 by Kazimierz Funk. Funk was inspired by Christiaan Eijkman work that showed eating brown rice reduced vulnerability to beri-beri, compared to those who at normal milled rice. (Beri-beri is a vitamin B deficiency that causes nerve and heart inflammation.) He was able to isolate the substance and because it contained an amine group he called it "vitamine". It was later to be known as vitamin B3 (niacin), though he thought that it would be thiamine (vitamin B1) and described it as "anti-beri-beri-factor". Amines have gone on to become one of the most important chemical groups in all of industry with processes that include: dyes, nylon, medicines, cooling systems, surfactants, cosmetics, agrochemicals, corrosion inhibitor, machining fluids, powder coatings, polyurethane, and epoxy coatings. Amines are a $32 billion industry in 2023.
(Thanks to Richard Darton, Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford, for information on the importance of potash in the early development of CO2 processes in industry.)
1903,
Separation of CO2 from air -
Linde, Patent, Process of producing low temperatures, the
liquefaction of gases, and the separation of the constituents
of gaseous mixtures
https://patents.google.com/patent/US727650A/en
Carl von
Linde, Carl von
Linde’s Breakthrough in the Refrigeration Process, SciHi blog,
June 11, 2018
http://scihi.org/carl-von-linde/#:~:text=Von%20Linde%20discovered%20a%20refrigeration,1913%20Nobel%20Prize%20in%20Physics.
Linde Nobel Prize 1913 -
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1913/ceremony-speech/
125 Years of Linde
https://www.linde-healthcare.nl/nl/images/chronicle_e%5B1%5D14_9855_tcm170-233340.pdf
1904,
Potash/Lye -
Behrens 1904, Patent, Process for manufacturing carbonic
acid…
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/ff/69/f6/d02d8bc1768a99/US960788.pdf
1930, Amines -
Bottoms, Patent, Process for separating acidic gases
(amines), 1930…
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/21/dc/33/8f7f493bfaae75/US1783901.pdf
1955 Activated
Potash (Arsenic) -
Giammarco, 1955, Patent Process for the separation and
recovery of carbonic acid from gas mixtures…
https://patents.google.com/patent/DE1000356B/en
--
Director, Climate Change Now Initiative, 501c3
President, Melton Engineering Services Austin
8103 Kirkham Drive
Austin, Texas 78736
(512)799-7998
ClimateDiscovery.org
ClimateChangePhoto.org
MeltonEngineering.com
Face...@Bruce.Melton.395
Inst...@Bruce.C.Melton
The Band Climate Change
Twitter - BruceCMelton1
Hi Doug,
I had always wondered why people seemed more scared of SAI than the climate crisis which is upon us. This could be the reason:
<< Psychologists have done their best to explain why we’re more scared of possible dangers from new things than obvious dangers from old ones (“this reaction may have to do with our amygdala, which research suggests plays a role in detecting novelty as well as processing fear”), and marketers have done their best to exploit it. But the rest of us have to do our best to fight it in ourselves and others. >>
Amazingly this psychology seems to apply even to the most eminent climate scientists who one might expect to be detached and objective in their advice. Jim Hansen seems to be a lone exception.
It is also likely that the more powerful the new technology, the greater the fear. This is certainly true for SAI versus MCB. But for those of us who are facing up to the reality of accelerating climate change and sea level rise from tipping point activation, and hence the urgency for powerful cooling intervention, then SAI is a godsend and something to be embraced with enthusiasm, giving us genuine hope for a decent future on this planet of ours. We need to dispel the fear of new technology and infect others with this enthusiasm for action: experimentation with SAI starting next year! As somebody commented at one of our meetings, we should have started SAI deployment years ago.
We have to do our best to fight the fear of SAI in ourselves and others. I have tried to show that there is little to be frightened about and dispel the fear that some people express. If a volcano did the cooling, this would be OK; but somehow the very idea of mimicking what a volcano does seems to terrify some people. They just refuse to believe that SAI could be deployed safely, and don't want an experiment that might show this.
Cheers, John
--On Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 5:44 AM Doug Grandt <answer...@mac.com> wrote:
My comment on Bill Mckibben’s blog post.
Join me and tag it with yours 🫣🤭🤗
Doug
Bill,
I’m tired of reading articles aimed at convincing deniers they’re wrong, and would like to read pieces supporting the dedicated scientists, engineers and other innovators and our deliberations to communicate what positive results can be achieved in the near-term to begin actual cooling during the decades it will take to reduce carbon concentration in the atmosphere and reduced acidity in the ocean, restoring fisheries, whale populations and the entire oceanic food chain.
Reducing emissions in and of itself will not reduce CO2 concentrations or global average temperatures except on a geologic time scale irrelevant to saving humanity and civilization.
Your paragraph (below) seems to apply to those folks who are dead set against innovation to get back to <350ppm and Holocene norms including the jet stream and Arctic vortex which now deliver extreme weather, death and destruction.
<< Psychologists have done their best to explain why we’re more scared of possible dangers from new things than obvious dangers from old ones (“this reaction may have to do with our amygdala, which research suggests plays a role in detecting novelty as well as processing fear”), and marketers have done their best to exploit it. But the rest of us have to do our best to fight it in ourselves and others. >>
We have met the enemy … you know …
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