Greenhouse gas oxidation and destruction using methane arresters by Arctic methane emergency
Pitch
Process air in an efficient SOFC reactor, emit oxygen and hydroxyl radicals from the air feedstock, and destroy all other greenhouse gases.
Description
Summary
All greenhouse gases need to be abated, but methane release is now an emergency situation. Vast quantities of methane will drive runaway warming in as little as 1 year and no longer than 30 years. The estimate for the methane release is 50 giga tonnes, which would triple the Carbon content of the atmosphere, but worse, contribute up to 10’C of global average warming to the climate.
The weakness of methane gas is the hydroxyl radical, formed from oxygen radicals. It takes 10 years for the natural destruction of methane, but a Methane Arrester system can do it in months. Over a multi-year program the technology can remove the dangerous methane, and reduce the dangerous and deadly impacts from the runaway methane warming.
The proposal is to release one MT of oxygen radicals from the methane arresters every two years to the free troposphere, where they will reside as active radicals (O* or OH*) until they oxidize the gases. More information can be found at: https://emergency-methane-release-arresters.business.site/
The arresters run on green electricity and are made of completely recyclable materials.
As methane builds up, and the natural hydroxyl radical methane removal system is overloaded, methane will remain in the atmosphere to worsen the warming forcing longer methane lifetimes in a feedback loop that will cause human extinction.
The time to act and apply Emergency methane arresters is now. Flood, fire and drought intensity is already close to 30% higher and is attributable to climate change caused by increasing greenhouse gases. Methane arresters remove all greenhouse gases from the air while they disperse concentrated hydroxyl radicals with no unwanted side reactions.
Category of the action
Geoengineering
What actions do you propose?
To release atomic Oxygen and hydroxyl radicals to the free troposphere in the amount of 0.5 to 2 MT a year from two locations including both hemispheres.
Who will take these actions?
A private contractor has the technology. With government emergency response and disaster mitigation funding, international mutual aid agreements, the Province of BC can start the scale up in the Kamloops district.
Where will these actions be taken?
Canada and Australia
What are other key benefits?
This technique will make the methane blowout survivable if it is done quickly enough. If it is started quickly it will also reduce and reverse global warming from the other greenhouse gases and draw down CO2. It will help repair the ozone layer after the methane blowout. It will also improve air quality.
What are the proposal’s costs?
- $8 B for the methane blowout
Time line
0-5 years
- computer model the radical release
- situate the pilot demonstration unit
- organize the mutual aid agreements to get the funding arranged
3-10 years
- Build out the full scale facility -1 in Canada and 1 in Australia
- arrange for environmental monitoring team
10+ years
- use the systems as needed for cooling or natural non toxic weather modification
Related proposals
References
Harada et al, “Transition to an oxygen-rich atmosphere with an extensive overshoot triggered by the Paleoproterozoic snowball Earth”, Department of Earth & Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo 113-0033, Japan, 2015, Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
2. Liang et al, “Deriving Global OH Abundance and Atmospheric Lifetimes for Long-Lived Gases: A Search for CH3CCl3 Alternatives”, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
By:
Arctic methane emergency
