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As one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions in the world, China has taken it upon itself to clean up its air and also become one of the leaders in fighting climate change. To show just how serious it is, the country is building giant plants that will capture carbon from the atmosphere. This also serves to highlight how far the US has fallen in the eyes of the world.
China is planning on building eight large-scale facilities all over the country, which will function as commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) plants, Digital Journal reports. The first one of its kind was recently opened in Switzerland and the facility is meant to grab the carbon from the atmosphere and then turn it into usable fuel.
This particular Chinese facility is owned by Yanchang Petroleum, an energy company that is operated by the government. It is placed close to the petrochemical plant in the city of Xi’an. Once finished, up to 800,000 tons of carbon will be processed in the facility every year, thus reducing emissions and getting an energy source in the process. That would be like removing 80,000 vehicles from the nation’s roads.
The Global CCS Institute, a nonprofit that’s based in Australia assisted in making the facility a reality. According to one of the Institute’s senior adviser, Tony Zhang, the rest of the facilities are still being evaluated and are awaiting approval.
"It’s one of eight large-scale CCS projects -- in varying stages of evaluation and subject to approval -- that China is considering," Zhang said.
CCS facilities are not the only solutions to carbon emissions being developed and considered, Futurism notes, but it is one of the most promising and realistic. Not only does help curb the rise in greenhouse gasses, it also provides the world with an extra source of energy.
