Researchers propose air conditioners as a solution to climate change

Scientists have an idea that could make you feel more like a green citizen than a hedonist if you buy an air conditioner for your neighborhoods. There is a way to use the units to fight climate change. OK, let's go over the question asked by a Quick business: And if each air conditioner stopped climate change to keep you cool? "

And if you could reverse the process, where instead of putting carbon in the air, the carbon would be removed from the air? & # 39; Adele Peters explained why this mattered: air conditioning "can consume so much electricity by mid-century that it could halve the average global temperature."

Charlotte Jee, writer of the Download, wrote: "The air conditioners consume a lot of energy and are at the origin of emissions that contribute to the rise in global temperatures (which, paradoxically, incites more than people to buy air conditioners). "

Air conditioning units would again be considered as machines that capture carbon dioxide and turn it into fuel.

American scientist had a particularly clear summary of what the team was talking about.

"Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems move a lot of air. They can replace the entire volume of air in an office building five to ten times an hour. Machines that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a sustainable climate change solution – also depends on moving large volumes of air. So, why not save energy by placing the carbon capture machine on the air conditioner? "

Peters: "The modular accessories of air conditioners could suck air in and through filters that capture CO2."

The researchers said: "It would not be technically difficult to add a CO2 capture feature to an air conditioning system, and an integrated A / C-DAC unit should present favorable economic conditions."

Once collected, water and CO2, says Jee, would be converted into renewable hydrocarbons.

Richard Conniff in American scientist Geoffrey Ozin, co-author, said that much of the necessary technology was already available on the market. "Carbon capture equipment could come from a Swiss" direct air capture "company, Climeworks, and electrolysers to convert carbon dioxide and water into hydrogen are available from Siemens, Hydrogenics or other companies. "

Peters pointed out the figures of the researchers who calculated (1) that a large office tower in Frankfurt, Germany, could capture enough CO2 to produce more than 600,000 gallons of fuel per year and (2) that Office buildings spread throughout the city could produce more than 120 million gallons. "The same process could happen on buildings everywhere."

The researchers' paper is titled "Mass Search, Not Crude Oil" by Roland Dittmeyer, Michael Klumpp, Paul Kant and Geoffrey Ozin. Nature Communications.

In the abstract, the authors indicated that they proposed "to modernize air conditioners as integrated, scalable and renewable energy devices capable of decentralizing CO2 and democratizing energy".

Regarding the title of the newspaper, how does the crowd element fit into their proposal?

A legend appears in their paper addressed this. "Renewable Oil Wells, a distributed social technology, enabling residents of homes, offices and commercial buildings around the world to collectively collect renewable electricity and heat and to use air-conditioning systems and ventilation to capture CO2 and H2O from the ambient air and convert them chemical processes, transformed into renewable synthetic oil – crowd oil – in substitution for a non-renewable fossil oil – constitute a step forward towards a circular economy of CO2. "

The researchers envisioned a model of mass oil from solar refineries, similar to electricity produced from solar panels. This would allow "people to take control and collectively manage global warming and climate change, rather than depend on the industrial giant for fossil fuels."

The reactions of technical observers to the plan?

"Very speculative." "Purely theoretical." Charlotte Jee's remarks were on the ground, not the bandwagon. She said: "While that's an attractive idea [crowd oil concept]there are many challenges to overcome before it becomes a reality. It could also potentially divert attention from the crucial mission of reducing the level of emissions we produce in the first place. "

Eric Worrall in How are things going? This concept was not considered a brilliant idea of ​​the year. "By transforming every air conditioner in a building or high-rise building into a miniature flammable oil refinery that releases oxygen by electrolysis." What could go wrong? ? "

The authors seemed to recognize that the paper included discussions on reducing CO2 emissions, while further analysis would be needed in the future.

"The preliminary analysis presented above demonstrates the potential of capturing CO2 from building air conditioning systems to produce a substantial amount of liquid hydrocarbons.Although the analysis considers the potential for reduction CO2, carbon efficiency and overall energy efficiency spatial or economic metrics for the required systems.These must be obtained from a techno-economic analysis and complete life cycle of the whole system. "

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