Musk to donate $100 mn for best carbon capture tech

New Delhi: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced that he would donate $100 million towards a prize for the best carbon capture technology.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a combination of technologies designed to prevent the release of carbon dioxide generated through conventional power generation and industrial production processes by injecting the carbon dioxide in suitable underground storage reservoirs.

"Am donating $100 million towards a prize for best carbon capture technology," Musk said in a tweet, adding that details will be shared next week.

The high upfront cost to carbon capture and storage or sequestration has been a primary hurdle for the world of technology.

According to TechCrunch, the Musk announcement "will be connected to Xprize Foundation, the non-profit organisation that host competitions aimed at encouraging technological development and innovation."

Carbon dioxide can be captured directly from the air or from an industrial source (such as power plant flue gas) using a variety of technologies, including absorption, adsorption, chemical looping, membrane gas separation or gas hydrate technologies.

The CCS applied to a modern conventional power plant could reduce CO2 emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80–90 per cent compared to a plant without CCS.

The concept has been suggested as a potential solution to slow down climate change by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere or even reversing it in the future.

Musk has said earlier that Tesla's mission is to accelerate the advent of electric transport and renewable energy in order to address climate change.

At a conference on the sidelines of the Paris Agreement, he described emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as the "dumbest experiment in history."