around 40 billion tonnes¶

The substance alluded to is COF-999, which, at peak performance, captures 2.05 mmol of CO2 per gram.

Humanity produces around 40 billion tonnes of CO2 per year, which is the equivalent of 9.08E17 mmol.

It would take 440 TRILLION kilograms of COF-999 to capture a year of CO2. https://t.co/6MkcVWaTbR Oh but don't worry! You can regenerate the substance by heating it to 60°C, allowing for its reuse! You just need to heat those 440 trillion kilograms annually to match our emissions. Of course, that also takes energy... The article doesn't give a specific heat capacity, but going by other COFs, it could be as low as 0.4 J/g*K.

Raising COF-999 up to 60°C might take only 16 J/g, which would mean 7.09 million terajoules per year to regenerate our 440 trillion kilograms of this miracle chemical! Of course, the process of regenerating COF-999 would then require us to find somewhere ELSE to put those 40 billion tonnes of CO2. Generally, carbon capture relies on pipelines pumping the captured carbon deep underground, which carries its own massive energy cost. We also haven't accounted for the energy of production of the substance, transportation, manufacturing the massive amounts of infrastructure, the fans needed to move air over it to allow it to capture CO2, and so many other considerations. Carbon capture will not save us. It's a measure of cope taken to utterly absurd degrees. You're taking the proposition of bailing water out of a sinking ship full of holes, and saying "But look, we just designed a better bucket! Now it's ok that the holes keep getting bigger!" For all its supposed complexity, there is exactly one solution to climate change.

Stop. Burning. Fossil. Fuels.

The only innovation that can end this is a social innovation: the end of endless growth. The end of capitalism.