Elon Musk donates $ 100 million for best carbon capture technology

Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday that he “will donate $ 100 million for a best carbon capture technology award.”

The boss of Tesla and SpaceX provided no details beyond the tweet, but said “details next week.” Cash rewards for innovation prizes are nothing new. For example, the XPRIZE foundation is a non-profit organization that facilitates cash prizes to encourage innovation.

So what is carbon capture technology?

Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage or Sequestration (CCUS), which is often abbreviated as “carbon capture”, is a process of capturing carbon emissions, to be stored or reused, in order to prevent emissions are released into the atmosphere.

Excess carbon dioxide gases prevent heat from escaping from the Earth’s atmosphere and cause global warming. Since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by 47% and is “the most important ‘force’ of long-lasting climate change,” according to NASA.

Using a competition to spur innovation in carbon capture technology is “certainly a very good idea,” said Ahmed F. Ghoniem, a professor at MIT who is interested in researching carbon capture technologies. of CO2. Innovation in carbon capture technology is necessary to “reduce the cost and complexity of the technology and improve overall efficiency,” he told CNBC via email.

Carbon capture is not new. There are currently 21 large-scale CCUS commercial projects around the world, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental energy organization. The first was created in 1972.

So far, carbon capture has been a disappointment.

“The history of CCUS has largely been one of unfulfilled expectations: its potential to mitigate climate change has been recognized for decades, but its deployment has been slow and therefore has had only a limited impact on global CO.₂ emissions, ”says the International Energy Agency.

But that could change. “There are clear signs that CCUS could gain ground,” says the IEA.

The US federal government “supports research and development” in carbon capture both in researching and assessing the viability of geological locations to store carbon and in developing technologies to better understand what is happening to the environment. carbon when stored for long periods of time, according to the Department of Energy.

Telsa did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Musk, who is currently worth $ 180 billion according to Forbes, signed The Giving Pledge, a public pledge for billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy, but has yet to make any significant charitable contributions, especially compared to to other billionaires. like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.