This Giant Bubble in Sardinia Stores Energy for the Grid. Here's How.
spectrum.ieee.org
Google is betting big on CO2 batteries to power its data centers with clean energy.

"This giant bubble on the island of Sardinia holds 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. But the gas wasn’t captured from factory emissions, nor was it pulled from the air. It came from a gas supplier… “The facility compresses and expands CO2 daily in its closed system, turning a turbine that generates 200 megawatt-hours of electricity, or 20 MW over 10 hours.”

  • lightnsfw@reddthat.comEnglish
    2·
    4 hours ago

    The CO2 is likely harvested directly from the atmosphere.

    What makes you think that? I just did a little googling and didn’t find a source that commercial co2 comes from the air. The best case scenario I found was it being a byproduct of other processes. Although I’m doing this on my phone so maybe I missed something.

    • Chippys_mittens@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 hours ago

      A process called DAC (Direct Air Capture) is currently used on medium scale to do this. Other instances in which they obtain CO2 is by capturing byproduct of industrial processes (the biggest and most pure being from hydrogen/ammonia production) or power plants. Again though, and I dont think this is sinking in, it is a closed loop system. So, once enough CO2 is captured, thats all that battery will ever need. Its not using new fuel to create more co2 it’s taking a specific amount from currently available, filling the battery ONCE then process over.