Sept. 16, 2020

Title: An Overview of Negative Emission Technologies

By Peter Psarras, Assistant Professor, Cuyahoga Community College.

Abstract:  It is widely accepted that conventional mitigation efforts, e.g., fuel switching, energy efficiency, and carbon capture and storage, are not enough to protect us from the irreversible effects of climate change. The inescapable reality of a continued atmospheric rise in heat trapping gases necessitates that other solutions must enter the fray, solutions that drawdown atmospheric CO2 into other reservoirs. This talk will provide an overview of several “negative emission technologies”: solutions that are designed to drawdown and reliably store more CO2 than they emit. Some solutions are quite simple in theory –for instance planting a tree (or a few!) – but complex in long-term management. Other engineered systems are cleverly integrated with existing low carbon heat and electricity to maximize removal potential. A discussion of the benefits and challenges of carbon removal will follow.

Bio:  Pete Psarras received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cleveland State University in 2014 where he worked on computational modeling of catalysts used in Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuel processing. His work since has focused mainly on climate change mitigation, mainly carbon capture, utilization, and – more recently – atmospheric carbon removal. Dr. Psarras joined Cuyahoga Community College in 2018 at the level of Assistant Professor in Chemistry, where he continues research work as a consultant conducting life cycle assessments and techno-economic analyses of hydrogen production and carbon management systems.