markcyffka

6 ms·

1.
AirMyne (YC W22) is hiring a chemical engineer in Berkeley, CA(ycombinator.com)
1 points by markcyffka 4y ago
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Great point & not so often talked about. Something like 230Mton of CO2 are used each year, a little more than half goes straight to urea production. By contrast only about 10% goes to the food/bev, medical, and other applications w
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Hi HN, we need to sign off for a bit & get back to building. So grateful for your questions & engagement. Be well & cheers - Mark & Sudip
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Sorry to get to this question late. There is some good discussion below on the possibilities of bio-based and nature-based solutions. We see bio-based solutions as having a great advantage in the short term since the feedstocks are concentr
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Thanks for the question, copying from an earlier comment which touches on similar point -- "Great question. We'd love to capture point-source CO2 from factory flue gas where it is orders of magnitude more concentrated (often >1
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by markcyffka 5y ago
*deforestation due to climate-influenced movement of arable land e.g. desertification also harms biodiversity as well
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Today we see a moment when popular interest, need, capital, and talent are converging on a willingness to to try new things with a path to success. Who knows how long the window will last. We must try to advance any path that has some chanc
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Great point. Cheers.
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by markcyffka 5y ago
We don't claim to be experts on this subfield & this is may not be an exhaustive list, but Carbfix, 44.01, and the Solid Carbon coalition are some that come to mind to check out. We don't speak for those companies but just wan
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by markcyffka 5y ago
I don't have the sources or exact numbers on hand, but I remember reading that the world's extractive & production processes create something like ~4 billion tons of oil, ~4 billion tons of iron, ~x billion tons of cement, and
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by markcyffka 5y ago
It should be done more but stronger tax & regulatory incentives are needed to encourage point-source polluters to adopt CO2 capture for emissions from industrial processes & energy production. It is very difficult to convince, say,
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by markcyffka 5y ago
The energy estimate includes the costs of compression & injection using some figures in publicly available resources that look at CO2 removal end-to-end. Co-locating the capture as close as possible to removal/injection site (e.g.
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by markcyffka 5y ago
The relationship between pressure, volume, and temperature for 1 ton of air (mass) can be characterized reasonably well by the ideal gas law PV=nRT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_gas_law
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Hi, great question, I hope we addressed it here from comment above: "Right now, there is an ongoing discussion between a huge variety of stakeholders -- CO2 removal startups/companies, academics, regulators, 3rd-party verification
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Thanks for the comment. Companies that are very action-oriented on slashing their emissions are already starting to look to CO2 removal projects as the next frontier to maximize their impact, now that the lowest-hanging emissions reductions
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by markcyffka 5y ago
We agree that saline aquifers are be a compelling strategy given the huge volumes available & measurement capabilities you mentioned. As verification standards emerge in the (currently nascent & somewhat fragmented) CO2 removal ecos
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by markcyffka 5y ago
There are a few startups exploring this and also PNNL is doing great public work on this topic as well. https://youtu.be/osXq-k84LpA?t=2177
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Most all of it comes as a side product. The amount of CO2 used for the applications listed pales in comparison to the amount used for urea (fertilizer) production.
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Thanks for the question, we'd rather not speak to anyone else's technology, except to say that we support anyone working to advance CO2 removal [copied from comment below, trying to keep up with all the questions/discussion!]
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Thanks for the question. It's a tough & good one we want to take it directly as we can. At our early stage, we are focused on developing our capture technology & thinking carefully how to best partner with folks who can do sequ
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by markcyffka 5y ago
We also got calculations that yielded literal mountains ranges of carbonate... That's not to say carbonate cannot be part of the solution, but maybe it is unlikely to be the only solution.
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Great question. We believe it becomes an issue of storage, logistics, supply chains, transport, and so on. We approach it this way: if we build & install 1,000,000 decentralized car-sized capture systems that capture, say, 1 ton of CO2
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by markcyffka 5y ago
I appreciate your comment & we hope to convince you otherwise as we get more process data from getting to pilot scale & beyond. Biodiversity is already being harmed today by the droughts, fires, floods, human migration patterns, etc
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Great points. We are using lab scale equipment today, and as trained engineers we want to be conservative to any forecasts we share publicly since unrealistic claims will not help us or anyone in this space get to where we want to go. We ha
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by markcyffka 5y ago
You are right that amines are great at removing CO2 and other acid gases from input gas streams and has been used in submarines/natural gas/many other industries. Can't speak publicly to our process just yet!
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by markcyffka 5y ago
In short, there is always that risk. We are exploring with partners how to minimize it. Subterranean mineralization is a fascinating path too and may help with some leakage concerns. We believe that CaCO3 can work in some small-scale contex
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by markcyffka 5y ago
We think our solution will be faster to deploy than other solutions and operate at a lower total cost + energy usage. I know it's a vague answer, but our design is anchored in minimizing capex, minimizing process steps/complexity,
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by markcyffka 5y ago
We are exploring a number of conversion pathways, but our right now our focus is on capture, removal, and sequestration underground. The process could potentially use waste heat & that is something we are thinking about as we think abou
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Right now we're focused on getting our capture/removal process working at scale, but we are keeping a close eye on the use cases since that is a big part of the conversation. There are many great teams working on the usage problem
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by markcyffka 5y ago
Lots of good questions - thanks. As long as a) the total cost people are willing to pay for CO2 removal gives sufficient margins vs. the cost required to capture it, b) the end-to-end process actually removes substantially more CO2 than it

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