Brian Asparro, chief operating officer of CarbonQuest, stands in a production room where liquid carbon dioxide is converted from a byproduct of a natural gas fired water boiler to a salable industrial product, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in New York. New York is forcing buildings to clean up, and several are experimenting with capturing carbon dioxide that is emitted, cooling it into a liquid and mixing it into concrete where it turns into a mineral.
“We think the problem is reducing emissions as quickly as possible," said Brian Asparro, chief operating officer of CarbonQuest, which built the system. “Time is not on our side, and this type of solution can be installed quickly, cost-effectively and without a major disruption.” The other half of the emissions that, in the city's view, the building is responsible for, are those generated at the power plants where the building gets its electricity. The carbon capture system, Asparro said, is trapping about 60% of the boilers' emissions. All told then, including the electricity to power the system, it's reducing the building's emissions by roughly 23%.
Carbon capture technology has existed on an industrial scale for decades, used by oil and gas companies and some manufacturing plants to capture climate-warming carbon dioxide and either sell it, or use it to wrestle more oil from underground. Without action, similar high-rise buildings could face fines of nearly $1 million annually starting in 2030, Asparro estimated.
Once carbon dioxide is in that mineral state, it's secure and it won't be released unless it's heated to about 900 degrees Celsius , said Claire Nelson, a geochemist who specializes in carbon capture at Columbia Climate School. Storing concentrated carbon dioxide under a residential building is worrisome, because “in the case of Mississippi, people weren’t actually living right on top of it,” Rogers-Wright said. “We’re talking about big buildings here in New York City. So the risks are unknown, but they certainly are apparent.”