Technology’s Role in Reducing Carbon

Some may say technology is to blame for the ever-expanding carbon levels in the atmosphere—about 410 parts per million in 2019, the highest level seen on earth in more than 3 million years. 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased along with human emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1750.

The future of the planet depends on humans taking steps to reduce carbon and other greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. While drastically different from technologies of the industrial revolution, new technologies are helping in the fight against climate change. 

From NOAA

Carbon Capture

Direct air capture—carbon capture and storage—is continuing to become more scalable and efficient as an option for removing carbon from the atmosphere. The industry expects the costs of carbon capture, currently several hundred dollars per ton, to fall over time.

Large oil producers like BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell have invested in carbon capture technology and facilities for reducing the impact of their own emissions. Now, companies are looking to commercialize carbon capture and offer it as a service to other organizations. 

ExxonMobil even created a commercial business unit to focus on carbon capture and storage. Shell already captures and stores its own carbon at sites in Australia and Canada, and says it wants to develop additional commercial facilities, vastly expanding storage capacity for potential clients.

The sales pitch: We will provide your energy, then take back the carbon to minimize your footprint.

There’s big money to be made. The U.S. offers companies a tax credit of as much as $50 a metric ton of carbon captured, while the U.K., Norway, and Australia have collectively committed billions of dollars of funding for carbon capture projects.

The commercialization might be just the solution to scaling up and therefore lowering costs. “If [energy companies] can now make the transition from using CCS for the oil and gas industry to selling it as a service to their customers and decarbonizing their own product you scale it up a lot more,” said Irene Himona, an analyst at Société Générale.

Carbon capture is just one of many technologies the energy industry is using to work toward emissions goals. AI, VR, and other interactive, data-driven technologies are helping optimize operations and reduce emissions and leaks.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and UAS

AI technology can harness large volumes of data from drones, robots, machines, and more, and has applications across the energy industry. It has the potential to not only increase global productivity but also lower overall emissions of carbon and other potent greenhouse gases, according to a recent report published by Microsoft in association with PWC.

There’s also a potential economic boost. “Using AI for environmental applications has the potential to boost global GDP by 3.1 - 4.4% while also reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by around 1.5 - 4.0% by 2030,” the report states.

AI—along with other technologies like drones (and other UAS), robots, 5G, VR, and AR—is helping energy companies improve efficiency, improve decision-making, reduce operational costs, and manage and extend the life cycle of physical assets. 

Companies are using digital twins to monitor and maintain equipment like never before. Robots are being deployed to inspect assets in dangerous environments, under water, offshore, and more. 

Data collected from all these inputs can be analyzed with AI to help energy companies decrease emissions, lower costs, and increase production from the field.

These technologies—AI, carbon capture, and more—come at two sides of the emissions problem: 1) lessening the emissions released into the atmosphere in the first place and 2) removing the emissions already there. Both sides of the coin are important in meeting the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to below 2 degrees, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.

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