Muhaimin Iqbal
Author

CCU for Advanced Biofuels and Oxygen Restoration

Advanced Renewable

Tue , 14 May 2024 11:48 WIB

So far, climate actions generally still focus on decarbonization, efforts to reduce CO2 emissions which are considered the main cause of climate change, global warming, extreme weather and various disasters. Meanwhile, there is another side that should also be of global concern, namely restoration of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere.

Every time we release 1 ton of CO2 into the earth's atmosphere, 727 kg of oxygen is lost and becomes unavailable for our breathing, because this O2 is bound to the C atom to become CO2, it is dirty air which can no longer meet our respiratory needs.

Our Creator has actually created a very beautiful balance that we should maintain, namely the CO2 that we emit both from breathing and our other activities, this CO2 is absorbed by plants in the photosynthesis process, and with water and sunlight, it is converted into energy (C6H12O6) and O2 again.

The problem is that our activities that emit CO2 are currently much greater than the activities of growing plants that absorb CO2 and release O2, as a result there is an accumulation of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere which is increasing day by day, and conversely there is a continuous decrease in O2 along with the growth of the CO2 accumulation. .

So when we plan decarbonization activities, we should also choose the type of decarbonization that has an impact on oxygen restoration. The sketch below is an example of decarbonization and oxygen restoration which we carry out simultaneously in the process of producing advanced biofuels from algae, where this algae is the number 1 biomass source in the top list of raw materials for advanced biofuels in the European Union's Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II).

Algae is chosen because this single-celled plant grows by dividing, 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 4, etc. so it grows very quickly, which means it also absorbs CO2 very quickly, as a result, restoration of O2 in the earth's atmosphere will also proceed very quickly.

This activity of improving the balance of nature will also be able to become a profit center for corporations or industries that carry it out, because the results in the form of biomass energy, C6H12O6, in wet conditions can also be processed directly into the advanced biofuels mentioned above through a series of two reactors that we have prepared for these, namely XH2M and GTX reactors.

XH2M (Extra High Hydrogen and Membrane) reactor processes algae slurry into H2-rich syngas, while GTX (Gas To X) process H2-rich syngas into advanced biofuels like green diesel, Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), bio gasoline and bio-LPG. Even if the desired product is pure hydrogen, only 1 reactor is needed, which is XH2M.

This is an opportunity for industries that are still emitting CO2 and removing O2 from the earth's atmosphere, to instead absorb CO2 and release O2, and turn it into its own profit center by producing advanced biofuels!