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Renewable Energy Is a Less Costly, More Efficient Climate Solution Than Carbon Capture, Study Finds

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18 Feb, 2025

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

The benefits of investing in clean energy, including solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower, make renewables a more cost-effective option compared to carbon capture technology, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, examined two scenarios across 149 countries through 2050: one in which the countries transition 100% of their business-as-usual energies into renewables, or wind-water-solar (WWS) sources, and another scenario in which policies invest in carbon capture (CC) and synthetic direct air carbon capture (SDACC). 

In the second scenario, the energy mix would still include fossil fuels and renewables, the same as the current combination of energy sources. Both scenarios accounted for the same improvements in energy efficiency, Clean Technica reported. The study authors compared the energy costs, public health impacts and changes in emissions of each scenario.

#RenewableEnergy vs. #CarbonCapture “If you spend $1 on carbon capture instead of on wind, water, and solar, you are increasing CO2, air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines, and total social costs” @mzjacobson

techxplore.com/news/2025-02…

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— Silicon Valley North – Citizens Climate Lobby (@cclsvn.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 12:58 PM

In the carbon capture scenario, countries would accrue $60 trillion to $80 trillion per year in social costs, or the costs related to energy, health and climate that are created with each additional ton of carbon dioxide emissions. Even if all carbon was captured and stored, this scenario would see a rise in non-carbon dioxide emissions, increased air pollution, higher energy needs and higher infrastructure costs.

By comparison, the WWS scenario accounted for a decrease in energy demand by about 54.4%, a decrease in annual energy costs of around 59.6% and a decline in annual social costs of 91.8%, the study found.

“If you spend $1 on carbon capture instead of on wind, water, and solar, you are increasing CO2, air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines, and total social costs,” lead study author Mark Jacobson, lead author of the study and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, said in a statement

New Study: Carbon Capture Is A Waste Of Money, & Counterproductive

cleantechnica.com/2025/02/15/n… @cleantechnica.bsky.social

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— Mark Z. Jacobson (@mzjacobson.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 2:09 AM

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which was not involved in the study, carbon capture is a technology that captures and stores carbon dioxide, typically from major polluting sites like power plants or industrial facilities. While carbon capture could help reduce emissions from heavily polluting sites, IEA noted that even with increasing deployment of carbon capture globally, the numbers remain far below what is necessary to reach net-zero emissions.

This new study takes the implementation of carbon capture to an extreme and finds even with nearly perfect carbon capture rates, the costs of investing in carbon capture over renewables would still be less beneficial than focusing on clean energy sources over fossil fuel dependence.

“It’s always an opportunity cost to use clean, renewable energy for direct air capture instead of replacing a fossil-fuel CO2 source, just like it’s an opportunity cost to use it for AI or bitcoin mining,” Jacobson said. “You’re preventing renewables from replacing fossil fuel sources because you’re creating more demand for those renewables.”

Further, investing in renewables rather than relying on fossil fuels coupled with carbon capture would lead to improved health outcomes, the study determined. As Stanford University reported, the WWS scenario would avoid 5 million deaths annually and hundreds of millions of other illnesses related to air pollution.

According to the authors, policies should stop promoting CC and SDACC and instead emphasize clean energy solutions.

“The only way to eliminate all air-pollutant and climate-warming gases and particles from energy is to eliminate combustion,” the authors wrote.

The post Renewable Energy Is a Less Costly, More Efficient Climate Solution Than Carbon Capture, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

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Vegetable oil waste sees new life through WORLD project

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The Politecnico di Milano, coordinator of the Waste Oils RecycLe and Development (WORLD) project, proposes a circular and sustainable process to turn used vegetable oil into a valuable resource.

Vegetable oil is used widely around the world, and cooking and food preservation is said to generate a huge amount of waste oil. Around four million tonnes of used vegetable oil are produced in Europe each year, representing just 4% of the total global amount of the widespread product. If not properly disposed of, the waste can lead to significant environmental impacts.

The goal of the WORLD project is to optimise waste vegetable oil treatment processes while improving the quality of end products, reducing waste and fostering European independence in the supply of critical raw materials.

The project proposes to recycle used vegetable oil, yielding materials used as bio-lubricants, air purification devices and fine chemical components from petroleum-free precursors. These applications are presented as a supply chain parallel to their well-known use in the production of biodiesel, although this is limited by law to 10% and concerns only the purest fraction of the waste.

In addition to economic and technological benefits, the project has a strong social and environmental impact: raising awareness of correct waste oil collection can reduce public costs related to incorrect disposal and prevent environmental damage. In addition, a life cycle analysis (LCA) will be conducted to assess the best strategies to minimise ecological, economic and social impacts by adopting a ‘zero waste’ approach.

The project study was published by the British Royal Society of Chemistry in the international journal RSC Sustainability.

“We started by observing that the waste vegetable oil recycling industry is currently based on simple decantation and filtration processes, without adequate scientific optimisation. We therefore analysed two alternative techniques — bentonite treatment and water washing — to improve their efficiency and reduce their environmental impact,” explained study co-author Andrea Mele, from the ‘G. Natta’ Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano.

“Through an experimental approach based on the design of experiments (DoE) methodology and multivariate statistical analysis, we optimised key parameters such as temperature, pH, bentonite concentration and oil-to-water ratio. The results showed that washing with water at 75°C and pH 6 guarantees the best performance in terms of yield, productivity and environmental sustainability, minimising the production of waste and the carbon impacts of the process,” continued co-author Alberto Mannu, who recently transferred from the Politecnico di Milano to the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Brescia.

Thanks to the WORLD project, a mathematical model developed from the collected data yields predictions of equivalent CO2 emissions according to operating conditions, providing the recycling industry with a practical tool for optimising processes in line with environmental certification standards.

This scientifically validated approach marks a step forward in the transition towards an efficient and sustainable circular economy. It is said to form part of the key principles of green chemistry, open new prospects for sustainability and efficiency, and may be highly competitive from a technical/economic perspective in models of the circular economy.

The WORLD project was funded by the European Union under the H2020-MSCA program. The consortium, which is coordinated by Politecnico di Milano, includes the Universities in Burgos (Spain) and Dunkirk (France), LUT University (Finland), and the Universities of Sassari and Brescia, together with non-academic partners in Spain and Italy.

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