Conceiving CarbonGood: making simple go-anywhere carbon capture reality

There's lots of complex, limited, and expensive carbon capture solutions being developed out there.

How about instead we go simple, unlimited, and cheap?

The fast-escalating climate emergency says we must act very fast, at massive scale, worldwide.

That need directly drives our key criteria - those things we must have, or must do, if we're to succeed.

Those criteria lead directly to Hydroponic Carbon Capture Anywhere, Simply.

Here's why and how.

To tackle our emissions at scale and pace that will actually make a difference, we need something that:

1. Can be rapidly and easily deployed anywhere, at very large scale.
   
2. Can be developed and productionized fast and affordably
   
3. Requires only minimal resources and time to develop and roll-out
   
4. Is totally flexible to local environment and situation
5. Is affordable - or even profitable - in operation
6. Is simple and cheap to maintain and support
7. And ideally makes ethical as well as technical/economic sense

We've defined the problem. Let's see where it leads.

1. Rapid easy deployment anywhere, at very large scale

ISO shipping containers are rapidly deployed literally Earth-wide every day, and have well-established global infrastructure to deliver just that.

So, format answers itself - the ISO container. And because shipping air - in the form of empty containers - is expensive and polluting, we'll use these containers to ship the other stuff  we need: the internal furniture and other gubbins for our process.

But the container format is just the start.

There's lots more to come.

2. Fast affordable development and productionizing

We don't have time, and cannot afford, to develop and productionize a cool new process from scratch.

Luckily, we don't have to.

One of the oldest on Earth is photosynthesis. Nature's own way of converting CO2 to something more useful. A reliable, bulletproof, efficient solution, available right now.

Photosynthesis by itself isn't enough - if it was, we'd be in a better place. However - we can fix that.

The fundamental issue with photosynthesis for carbon capture is footprint - we have nowhere near the fertile land we need to grow biomass to absorb enough of our emissions, fast enough.

But, we could have.

Because with few exceptions, considered at global scale biomass is thinly spread over one single surface - the Earth's. But at the scale we need, on this single surface we'd need tens of millions of fertile hectares we don't have - either because we're living on them, or they're already busy growing food, or grow the forests which allow us to breathe, or are essentially barren - desert, steppes, mountain ranges etc.

Let's instead look at this as an engineering problem, rather than an agricultural one.

What if we productionize photosynthesis?

That's my kind of engineering. But how can that work here?

Productionizing photosynthesis means growing biomass as fast as possible, on as little land as possible, as flexible and scalably as possible, as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Put simply: like ALL production engineering, getting as much as possible, from as little as possible.

How hard can it be?

As much as possible

Even nature's fastest-growing species are limited by soil quality, pest, disease, competition, water and nutrient availability, weather, daylight, seasons...

The first challenge is to fix all that.

A little engineering allows our ISO container to overcome all these. Instead of biomass growing only between sunrise and sunset, only from spring to autumn, scrabbling for nutrient and water, battered by heat or cold, fighting pests and disease (and each other for space), we can instead grow almost 24/7/365 in perfect conditions free from pest, weather and stress.

That's not new, it's called hydroponics - a well-established process.

The trick will be upscaling that from "city farms" and local food production, to something massive scale able to actually solve our emissions problem.

As little as possible

Imagine our ISO container becomes a lightweight box containing everything needed to grow biomass hydroponically - let's call it a Hydroponic Unit, or HU. And by using low- and fast-growing biomass, an HU can house 4, 5, 6 or more tiers.

And because it's an ISO container we can stack it 9-high. Now, we're making biomass 9 X 4, or 5, or 6 - so 36X, or 45X, or 54X more densely than we can do growing it in a field.

But we're ALSO growing 24/7/365 in perfect conditions. And THAT should add at least another 25% - so now we're hitting 45X, or 56X, or 64X.

And if we can grow biomass 67X faster, our biomass can start to really impact emissions.


In fact, we can do even better than that.

As flexibly and scalably as possible

Because it's hydroponic - so soilless - CarbonGood doesn't need fertile land. Instead, we can use some of Earth's millions of hectares of non-fertile land.

And because CarbonGood needs only little water and renewable energy, location doesn't matter.

And because CarbonGood is also modular HUs can be stacked in any configuration and any number, in one or multiple blocks, connected by commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware to best use available space. That can be old airfields, vacant lots, rocky desert, disused quarries, empty buildings - anywhere.

CarbonGood hardware is also standardized and simple. So manufacture and build can be in-country to reduce shipping, with assembly by local labour to boost local economies, as well as simplifying spares and support logistics.

As efficiently and effectively as possible

Contrary to what people think, efficiency and effectiveness are not the same thing.

A motor may be near-perfectly efficient - but totally ineffective if it's pulling in the wrong direction.

A drain pump is effective if it pumps out all the water - but inefficient if it wastes half the energy/fuel that powers it in friction and heat.

CarbonGood should be efficient. It's closed circuit and insulated so as little as possible is wasted. The lighting, water and nutrients are applied only where needed. And biomass production is almost lossless.

CarbonGood should also be effective. It will do what it's designed to do. with minimal fuss and effort.

3. Minimal resources & time to develop and roll-out

CarbonGood is known science and simple technology.

It's ambient temperature and pressure so inherently low-risk.

No aggressive chemicals or physics is involved.

If CarbonGood fails - highly unlikely given the simplicity and redundancy - it simply stops until it's fixed and emissions return to pre-CarbonGood levels. There's zero short- or long-term danger.

The simplicity offers a clear and simple upgrade path as we learn more about making it work better.

And means we don't need $gazillions and decades, and we don't need man-years of R&D.

We believe CarbonGood could be up-and-running at large scale within a few years.

Minimal resources and time to develop and roll-out? Tick.

4. Total flexibility

CarbonGood doesn't care what biomass it grows so (within the HU's physical constraints) that can be whatever works best locally. Anything fast-growing, easily collected, and easily processed is good.

CarbonGood can also grow any mix of biomass - food, building material (e.g. hempcrete), or for other uses.

CarbonGood is unaffected by weather/climate, location, fertility, pollution levels, daylight hours, and pretty much everything else.

CarbonGood is indeed totally flexible.

5. Affordable (or even profitable?)

CarbonGood is simple, using low-cost readily-available materials, and will be mass-produced in huge volumes of identical items. That offers enormous economy of scale.

CarbonGood is low-tech and simple to operate and maintain, keeping labour costs low.

CarbonGood' energy needs are low and potentially largely met by on-site/local renewable - PV and wind.

CarbonGood also produces stuff we actually want. That can be food, crops with other uses, or raw biomass. Or something else... but all of it with sales value.

CarbonGood isn't just affordable carbon capture - it may well be profitable carbon capture.

6. Simple and cheap to maintain and support

CarbonGood is constructed from COTS materials to a simple, standardized design with low parts count.

That allows for an easily-maintained spares base and standardized remote operation and maintenance training, while the few complex components can use IoT to call engineers when necessary. Since HCASS is 100% failsafe, repairs need not be urgent, meaning the support infrastructure can also be simple.

Simple and cheap to maintain and support is good.

7. Ideally, makes ethical sense too

CarbonGood offers economies the  means to convert their emissions directly and locally into high-value product they can use themselves to improve their agriculture, feed their people and raise their incomes.

And because CarbonGood is so simple it can be readily understood, is transparent enough to trust, and is ethical enough to respect and to encourage buy-in.

On top of which, reducing dependence on slash-&-burn agriculture keeps more of Earth's green lungs.

And down the road, because well-nourished populations that have to spend less time subsistence-farming learn better, we're improving future lives too.

No other CCS/U solution does all this AND captures carbon - let alone at massive scale.