Diamonds are forever
That statement should gladden not just the woman’s heart, but also those in carbon sequestration.
Women’s hearts & CO2 sequestration – what an odd, unthinkable combination!
But there you have it. Here goes the story of CO2 and diamonds.
Diamonds are pure carbon – 99.95% by weight.
The connection between CO2 and a diamond is obvious – the “C”. So is it any surprise that some folks want to convert CO2 emissions into diamonds?
All the same, it is not such a straightforward process to make diamonds from CO2. While lab grown diamonds are already established, they use graphite as the starting point and not CO2.
Some companies have started producing diamonds from CO2 recently, with Aether being the more popular among them. Aether’s process involves first capturing the CO2 from an emissions source, converting it into a hydrocarbon in the second step and using the hydrocarbon to produce pure carbon in the form of diamond in the third.
All that’s fine. But surely we are not talking about reducing CO2 emissions from diamond production?
The world mines about 30 tons of rough diamonds (150 million carats) every year. We emit 35 billion tons of CO2 every year. It’s a small matter of 9 zeros.
Diamonds surely are not a solution to CO2 abatement, but it can perhaps unravel innovations in more scalable sequestration avenues.
One thing is for sure though. The captured carbon isn’t going to go anywhere for a long, long time. And as a bonus, who knows what can happen when the captured fella touches a woman’s heart – almost literally in this case!
There’s a lot more excitement around how CO2 can be put to use. Know from All about CO2 – https://lnkd.in/ge8KveP7
Interview with Aether co-founder – https://lnkd.in/gA7MmSjJ – Thingtesting | Ryan Shearman | Natalie Sportelli
Image credit: Fast Company – https://lnkd.in/gfQ5Napa
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