Elon Musk donates $ 100 million towards the best carbon capture technology

Elon Musk tweeted Thursday that he is “donating $ 100 million towards an award for the best carbon capture technology.”

The Tesla and SpaceX boss gave no details outside of the tweet, but said “details next week.” Cash rewards for innovation prizes are not new. For example, the XPRIZE foundation is a non-profit organization that enables cash prizes to stimulate innovation.

So what is carbon capture technology?

Carbon capture, use, and storage or sequestration (CCUS), often abbreviated to “carbon capture”, is a process of capturing, either stored or reused, carbon emissions to prevent emissions from entering the atmosphere.

Excess carbon dioxide gases prevent the heat from escaping the Earth’s atmosphere and cause global warming. Since the industrial revolution, human activity has increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by 47% and is “the main long-lived ‘forcing’ of climate change,” NASA said.

Using a competition to drive innovation in carbon capture technology is “certainly a very good idea,” said Ahmed F. Ghoniem, a professor at MIT with a research interest in carbon capture technologies. Innovation in carbon capture technology is needed to “reduce the cost and complexity of the technology and improve overall efficiency,” he told CNBC via email.

Carbon capture is not new. According to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental energy organization, there are currently 21 large-scale CCUS commercial projects around the world. The first was established in 1972.

So far, carbon capture has been a disappointment.

“The story of CCUS has largely been one of unfulfilled expectations: the potential to mitigate climate change has been recognized for decades, but implementation is slow, so it only has a limited impact on global CO₂ emissions, ”says the International Energy Agency.

But that could change. “There are clear signs that CCUS is gaining momentum,” said the IEA.

The US federal government “supports research and development” of carbon capture, both in searching for and assessing the viability of geological sites to store carbon and in developing technology to better understand what happens to carbon when it is left for long periods of time. time is saved, according to the Department of Energy.

Telsa did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Musk, who is currently worth $ 180 billion according to Forbes, has signed The Giving Pledge, a public pledge for billionaires to give away most of their assets to philanthropy, but has made no significant contributions to charities to date, especially compared to other billionaires. like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.