‘Reversing’ coal mining: Minnesota startup uses plants to trap carbon emissions
Author: Frank Jossi
A Minneapolis startup company wants to become a leader in the emerging carbon capture and storage market. Carba, co-founded by a University of Minnesota chemical engineering professor and a former student, has developed a portable reactor that converts plant waste into a charcoal-like substance called biochar. That material can then be buried to seal carbon in place for generations.The company’s backers believe it could prove to be an inexpensive and energy-efficient method to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — something the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released Monday, says will be necessary for preventing the most devastating effects of climate change. “There’s a huge negative emissions problem and nobody has the technology to scale without using a ton of energy or capital,” said Andrew Jones, Carba’s founder and CEO. “We believe we have cracked that nut.” Trees and plants are the world’s biggest carbon sink. Through photosynthesis, they store carbon dioxide throughout their lives, but after they die, they decay and release that carbon back into the atmosphere. Carba’s technology offers a way to lock that into a solid form instead. The company promises to consume a fraction of the energy of other technologies, such as direct air capture methods. In addition, those technologies demand either centralized plants or investments of hundreds of millions of dollars per site.