What if Carbon Dioxide is the ANSWER NOT The Problem?

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When I was in graduate school I was doing research on hybrid electric vehicles, specifically the Japanese model of the Prius. At one point during my first year in the PhD program I realized that no one had ever analyzed the radiant energy distributed into the atmosphere as a result of the roads which get quite hot as compared to flora that would normally occupy those spots and had asked my graduate advisor if I could do that on the side. The basic answer was that the only way to get funding was to bite off on the CO2 emissions as the primary driver of climate change and since my hypothesis wasn't associated with that end result, no funding could be provided. So if everyone in the scientific community only gets funding if they internalize the idea of CO2 being the primary driver of climate change then you will never have information to the contrary regardless of if it exists. I dropped out of the PhD program about 6 months later after realizing that even in STEM programs graduate school was a complete waste of time and money.

Grid battery has to be: 1. Cheap 2. Scalable 3. Reliable Weigh and energy density doesn't matter in stationary batteries. This looks like a great solution.

Great content as usual. I had to laugh when I saw a "Google Context Warning". I had to watch the video again to see if I could find anything deserving of receiving a warning. Anybody who has watched Ricky's video know how circumspect he is in showing new cool upcoming engineering in the area of renewable energy. In other words he provides his own warnings and encourages questioning. It really demonstrates the silliness of these "Google Warnings" as not actual warnings.

60 years ago Buckminster Fuller said, "Pollution is just a resource that we haven't learned to use yet."

Yes tell that to all of us who run CO 2 generators into our greenhouses to help our plants thrive even better.

The biggest takeaway for me is that since CO2 doesn't require cryogenic assist to be compressed into a liquefied state, it is much more efficient than compressed air. For utility power plants, I don't think the CO2 battery's low energy density will play much of a factor in deciding whether to use it in comparison to other technologies, though the short vid of the Tesla with a CO2 dome on its roof was a good bit of fun. Thanks for the great video. I see so many videos like "Graphene Eardrum Replacement Surgery Enables Supersonic Hearing", and it turns out to be nothing more than a calculation someone did on the resonant frequency of a piece of graphene the size of an eardrum, and is nowhere even close to becoming reality. That there is a CO2 pilot plant currently operating and a contract to scale up this tech in a real-world application is just wonderful and makes this video so worthwhile. Thanks for covering this.

I think you might be missing something: heat transfer during compression and expansion. --The pumps will generate quite a lot of heat when charging (during compression), and will sink a lot of heat (cool the surroundings) when discharging. Pumped hydro or batteries don't have this problem, but compressed air does though probably to a lesser extent because the air doesn't undergo a phase change. The bigger the battery, the bigger the problem. --Have you included components for heat transfer to the external environment? (fans, pumps, etc.) A large unit could either frost up and stop working efficiently or overheat and fail. And if you use an external source of energy for heating the liquid CO2 the efficiency drops. If you expand too much CO2 without heating the storage cells the remainder will solidify. (dry ice) I would expect that the problem will get worse as the battery gets larger. There might be a good solution at small size, but not at industrial size. In other words, will it scale? Time to do some thermodynamic modeling. And finally, CO2 is actually a toxic gas when concentrated. The fatal concentration is about 10%. So leaks are more hazardous than compressed air.

This sounds awesome. Really hope there isn't something that isn't seen that prevents it from scaling up.

Good content. The titles though are clickbaity…

Mostly it's just nice to see another option for energy companies that fills the low-budget niche. More good options like this will make it easier for us to find sustainable options in the various conditions around the globe.

One great thing about this energy storage system is that it works directly with our AC system, since the motors and generators are AC themselves. This means that it could give renewables like solar or wind some "inertia" which mimics the one that normal powerplants have, dampening fluctuations in the frequency of the AC

I can see this working in conjunction with Li Ion batteries. The Li Ion for frequency modulation and rapid short term response and the CO2 battery for medium to long term storage and discharge cycles.

Thank you for this little dose of sanity in a world gone mad. This is a genuinely impressive development. I am happy to have found your channel, and shall be making up for whatever I missed previously by binge watching.

What a cracking episode! A great idea expertly and clearly presented. Thank you.

Good information on this video. I think we could build this in Taranaki, New Zealand, as we already have a process that takes CO2 from the vented gas at the Kapuni Gas Treatment plant.

And as it turns out... It might well be both. From startup to prototype AND funding for a full scale op in under 3 years... THAT IS STUNNING.

The one thing most people don't know about efficiency is that in a system the overall efficiency will always be lower than the least efficient component.

This is only the beginning. We're just starting to innovate on battery storage. I can't wait for what comes up next.

About thirty years ago I was driving on a very busy highway in Spain. Between the two lanes was an area where beautiful bushes with flowers grew. I then thought, car exhaust pipes can't be that bad for the environment.