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cogman10 • today at 1:51 AM • 1 reply • view on HN

There's not.

The first problem, in order to reverse a chemical reaction, you need to provide at least the offsetting released energy of the initial reaction. That means for CO2 you need to provide at least as much energy as was released when the carbon oxidized in the first place.

The second problem is that the CO2 is diluted in the atmosphere. Consider the amount of energy needed to remove salt from ocean water, it's not simple.

It just takes a lot of energy to that what was done by burning fossils in the first place.


Replies

SoftTalker • today at 2:10 AM

Maybe not. You don't need to chemically turn the CO2 back into hydrocarbons and free oxygen. You just need to remove it from the atmosphere.