How can our research have gigaton scale impact?
In the second edition of the CORC CO₂ Research Talk we heard Dr. Arun Majumdar's take on how CO₂ removal could be part of the solution to keep the temperature below 1.5°-2°C degrees, as agreed upon by the UN Paris agreement. Dr. Jeffrey Reimer then followed with a talk about one of the solutions to decarbonize the atmosphere that he is working on together with his research group.
In the second CORC CO2 Research Talk we welcomed Dr. Jeffrey Reimer of UC Berkeley and Dr. Arun Majumdar, dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
Arun Majumdar began by setting the scene of the challenges we are facing; the gigaton problem!
Net-zero-emissions is what everyone is talking about and striving for. But while governments, municipalities, companies, and even individuals are trying to reach the big 0, it’s becoming more apparent that we need to reduce below zero to even have a chance of keeping the temperature below 1.5°-2°C degrees. A global goal agreed upon by the UN in the Paris agreement of 2015. Calculations from the IPCC, The International Panel for Climate Change, show that by the end of this century we need to remove 6-20 gigatons of CO2 pr. year to make that goal happen. And we need to begin removing CO2 from the atmosphere already in 2030! What technologies can we use and what challenges confound us? One thing is certain – to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a gigaton scale, we also need technology for removing carbon dioxide at a gigaton scale.
See a recording of Arun Majumdar's talk here
In Jeffrey Reimer's talk, he focused on the work of his research group, which is developing materials that decarbonize the atmosphere. The Reimer group is part of a multinational collaboration that studies solid adsorbent materials that capture of carbon dioxide from the air or the exhaust streams of industrial processes. Metal-organic frameworks are one class of materials that may be designed for such purposes. The group develops and employs in-situ spectroscopic and diffraction methods to investigate how MOFs with coordinately unsaturated metal sites adsorb target gas molecules with high affinity and selectivity.
See a recording of Jeffrey Reimer's talk here
The next CORC CO2 Research Talk will take place on 16 November, where we are pleased to welcome Dr. Katherine Richardson and Dr. Marta Victoria, sign up via the link.