How Do Those Jeans Fit?

October 14, 2022

How Do Those Jeans Fit?

Enhancing rocks to sequester carbon. Carbon-based sunglasses. And . . . Levis goes net-zero?

Another week, another round of fast-paced developments in the world of carbon credits. 

Off we go!

Puro. Earth: Rocks, Enhanced

A Finnish company wants to speed up natural rock weathering processes.

In nature, atmospheric CO2 dissolves in rainwater falls to earth and spends centuries or even millennia slowly dissolving down into certain rock formations.

The result is vast concentrations of CO2 safely locked away underground.

Puro. Earth aims to turn centuries into weeks or hours, using a process called Enhanced Rock Weathering.

Puro uses two different methods of ERW to sequester carbon and produce carbon credits. The entire process is in the early stages, and we will have to wait to see if any other carbon registries begin to formally recognize ERW.

Levi’s: Real, Comfortable, Carbon-Free Jeans

Levi’s, the apparel giant, makes far more than jeans. And these days, they intend to make everything in a carbon-free manner. Reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 will require further drastic reductions in Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

Fortunately, Levi’s has already been making progress. 2021’s milestones included a 22% absolute reduction in Scope 3 (supply chain) emissions, alongside a 66% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

The moves demonstrate solid progress towards a net-zero goal - even if some of those jeans aren’t yet carbon-neutral.

BMO Teaches VCM Basics

The Canadian Bank of Montreal (BMO) published a detailed report on the current state of the VCM. There were a number of key takeaways, but the biggest - by far - was the analysis of the VCM’s potential size. 

In BMO’s estimation, the VCM could reach 6.5 times its 2020 size by 2030. And by 2050 - the year of Levi’s net-zero goals - the VCM could be 17 times larger than it was three decades earlier.

The size estimates underpinned another of BMO’s takeaways - the critical importance of the VCM to the world’s fight against climate change. The VCM won’t be the only thing that stops climate change - but it’s a necessary tool.

Twelve Transformations (And More!)

Twelve is using carbon reclaimed from CO2 to make a huge variety of products that would otherwise rely on petrochemicals. To do it, Twelve relies on industrial photosynthesis.

The idea is simple; use clean energy from air and water to do what plants do - combine them with CO2 to create whatever is needed.

Industrial photosynthesis takes place inside an electrochemical reactor. Electricity powers a process that breaks down CO2 and water and recombines the molecules into new forms. 

Once fully developed, an electrochemical reactor could be deployed nearly anywhere. Better still, the CO2 necessary for the process can come from various CCS and DAC processes.

Attach an electrochemical reactor to an industrial plant, use CCS to capture emissions from the plant, and use that CO2 to produce more components for the factory’s processes.

Twelve demonstrates how the VCM powers more than just new carbon offsets; it’s providing new technologies with direct applications for production.

Carbon Fact of the Week

Electrolysis is the process that powers Twelve’s electrochemical reactor. It’s also the same basic principle behind other attempts to convert captured CO2 into everything from jet fuel to high-purity ethylene.

The idea is simple: zap carbon dioxide with electricity and break it down into constituent parts. At that point, the hard part is figuring out how to recombine those parts into usable forms. 

Catalysts serve a critical role in the process; different catalysts help to produce different end forms. Copper is one such catalyst, used by a research lab to create high-purity ethanol from CO2 and water.

Source: https://carboncredits.com/