At the beginning of the semester, Jen Wilcox visited both the STS senior seminar and the afternoon origins seminar (I believe) as well to discuss her research on carbon capture and reliable storage methods. Although she was not one of the evening seminar presenters, she spent our class discussing the origin of the problem increasing carbon emission levels have presented our society with today, and how carbon capture and dilution can be a potential solution.

Jen Wilcox is a Professor at the Colorado School of Mines, where she teaches in Chemical and Biological Engineering department. Her extensive research in carbon dioxide capture and trace metals has won many awards, and after hearing from her it was amazing how accessible she was able to make the technicalities of her research for a student like me without her background in mathematics and chemical engineering. She began her presentation by outlining the problem emissions presents and how necessary it is for some future level of decrease in the global carbon dioxide emissions. She took us through multiple scenarios of future emission levels and explained how difficult it is to model the future because of the lack of predictability they hold. She highlighted though how important it is to begin the discussion of not just decreasing but also removing some of this carbon. Her case for removal was very strong, especially in its most basic sense that because society has allowed these emissions in we need to take them back out. However, this process is very difficult because the CO2 is much more dilute in the atmosphere and it is now a part of the atmosphere’s equilibrium. This altercation of the atmosphere is why negative emissions has to be a part of the solution because it made the problem almost two times bigger by putting it there in the first place. Professor Wilcox then continued her introduction of this topic by explaining the history of CO2 and the different obstacles that have presented themselves for different solutions. At the heart of this is the issue that CO2 is not perceived as a serious problem because you can’t see it, an issue at the heart of multiple environmental issues, making it hard to justify a significant expenditure to combat it. The redistribution of global dependence on certain fossil fuels has been key in this history, as coal consumption has decreased overtime sending natural gas and renewable energy on the rise.

She then outlined three key opportunities for carbon capture and the effects dilution can have. Most CO2 sources are moderately to extremely dilute, but option one is absorption. Basically with this method, plants contributing these emissions would line their towers with a packing material covered in a solvent that absorbs and chemically combines with the CO2. This solvent would then separate the materials out as air is pushed through the column created a saturated solvent that is easier to use. While I am not a chemical engineer like Professor Wilcox and clearly cannot explain the process as well, she researched and created a solution that took all the material properties into account. The methods she tested were not only the origin of a solution, but she also explained how it opens the door to further conversation about the reality and lack of education around environmental issues. She explained that “we can’t fool society,” and this new reality of thinking needs to continue that being carbon neutral is not a good enough goal to work towards.