Jacob Ballou

4/8/2019

Final Speech

The planet is warming, and it is warming due to human action. We need to stop it before it’s too
late. I’m not just saying this because I want to peace out and live in harmony with nature. No matter
what we throw at it, life will survive. The reason we should be concerned about Global Warming is our
own survival. The UN has released information that we have until 2030 to stop global warming. That
might seem like a long time, but it’s only 3650 DAYS! It’s clear that we need to do something quickly.
Limiting emissions and planting new forests are good starts, but they aren’t enough. Any worthwhile
effort to stop global warming MUST include carbon removal on an industrial scale, and repurposing it
into nanomaterials is the best way to do so.

In this speech, I’ll show you that the capture and repurposing of carbon dioxide works
surprisingly quickly. I will demonstrate that capturing carbon as nanomaterials will be a great way to
create innovative technology, and finally, I will show that there is an amazing economic incentive to
implement these processes.

By running electricity through molten carbonates, scientists have been able to break carbon
dioxide into carbon and oxygen. The carbon builds up on one electrode, while the oxygen bubbles out
into the air. The developer of the process, Dr. Stuart Licht, calls it “Carbon to Carbon Nanotubes”, or
C2CNT for short. The interesting thing about it is that one can tailor the nanomaterials produced in this
process by changing the electrode’s composition. For example, it produces graphene instead of
nanotubes when a copper electrode is used. Licht also notes that an area of nanotube production units
only a small percentage of the Sahara Desert in size would be able to lower carbon to safe levels in as
little as 10 years. His concept involves taking in carbon from the atmosphere and using focused sunlight
to heat the electrolysis vats to the right temperature, saving electricity. These promises should be taken
with a grain of salt- after all, people have been predicting scientific miracles since ancient times.
However, many papers concerning this process have been published, and it’s been independently
verified.

While the removal of excess carbon from our atmosphere is the ultimate goal, it’s also
important to remember the ways in which nanomaterial production from carbon dioxide could improve
our technology.

Carbon nanomaterials are expected to have many applications in electronics and computation.
Carbon nanotubes are excellent conductors, but if their molecular structure is changed in certain ways,
they become semiconductors. This allows them to be used as circuitry, all on an incredibly small scale.
This means that we can fit more and more computing power into the same amount of space. It is clear
that the mass production of carbon nanotubes will improve our computers like never before.

Nanotubes aren’t the only useful products of this new kind of carbon-capturing. According to
physicists at the University of Arkansas, graphene flexes up and down with the motion of nearby
molecules. At any temperature above absolute zero, molecules vibrate. By picking up on this vibration,
thin sheets of graphene could be used to generate electricity from ambient heat! It isn’t really free
power, but this effect could be used to make electronic devices that you never have to plug in.

Nanotubes have incredible strength, so they will also be great for building stronger, lighter
materials. This might not scale with size- spider silk is stronger than steel, but there’s a reason we don’t
use it to make buildings. However, we already use carbon fiber, and its strength is proven. There are
proposals to repurpose the carbon dioxide produced by cement plants, and then mix the resulting
nanotubes into the concrete to act as a kind of stronger rebar. By doing so, we could make stronger
buildings. In addition to use in construction, carbon nanotubes are also great for making lightweight
composites. I already mentioned carbon fiber, which is often used to make sports equipment, race cars,
and body armor. In the future, we can expect to see more and more uses for carbon nanotubes, so it
only makes sense to start making more of them.

While it’s clear that harvesting carbon from the air will boost our technology to whole new
levels, there is also profit to consider. Greed caused oil companies to spearhead global warming denial,
but if it becomes more profitable to fix global warming, greed can work in our favor. Currently, carbon
nanotubes are a rare, valuable asset. They are normally made in an expensive process called “Chemical
Vapor Deposition” or CVD. This new carbon harvesting method, on the other hand, is incredibly cheap.
Dr. Licht estimates that it could cost as little as $60 of electricity per hour. Because of the expense
associated with their production, carbon nanotubes currently cost $200,000/ton. By harvesting carbon
from the air or their own smokestacks, companies could make amazing profits.

Eventually, once carbon nanotubes are mass produced, their price will go down to around the
same level as that of steel. However, nanotube manufacture will still be a very lucrative venture. Besides
the structural and electronic uses, carbon nanotubes are also thought to have great promise in the field
of medicine. Nanotubes might allow chemotherapy to be delivered in smaller doses, in the exact place it
needs to be. There are also more commercial applications: Carbon nanotubes can purify water, so they
would be an essential part of water filters. These uses, and many more that are currently undiscovered,
will make carbon nanotubes an economic mainstay. While the price of carbon nanotubes is likely to go
down, their many uses, especially with regards to technology, will ensure that no matter how common
they become, the mass production of carbon nanomaterials will be an excellent line of work.

The C2CNT process developed by Dr. Licht shows great promise in terms of its effectiveness,
usefulness, and profitability. The conversion of carbon dioxide into carbon nanomaterials is efficient and
effective. The products of this process are very useful to the manufacturing and construction industries,
or will prove to be useful in the future. Finally, there is a significant economic incentive to invest in
carbon-based nanomaterials and their manufacture. Due to the need to remove carbon from our air on
a massive scale, it’s repurposing into nanomaterials is clearly the quickest, simplest, and most profitable
way to stop global warming.

A solution to global warming is needed for the survival of human civilization, and we’re almost
out of time. However, there is a glimmer of hope. If we can just turn carbon from a waste product into a
valuable commodity, we can end the threat of global warming once and for all. It would be almost
poetic to get out of our current situation in the same way that got us into it in the first place, by letting
human greed do its thing.
 Sources:

Licht, Stuart. “Co-Production of Cement and Carbon Nanotubes with a Carbon Negative Footprint.”
Journal of CO2 Utilization, Elsevier, 19 Mar. 2017,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212982016302852.

Mooney, Chris, and Brady Dennis. “The World Has Just over a Decade to Get Climate Change under
Control, U.N. Scientists Say.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 7 Oct. 2018,
www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/08/world-has-only-years-get-climate-change-
under-control-un-scientists-say/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.09214dcd6ef1.

Ren, Jiawen, and Stuart Licht. “Tracking Airborne CO2 Mitigation and Low Cost Transformation into
Valuable Carbon Nanotubes.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 9 June 2016,
www.nature.com/articles/srep27760.

Shumaker, Camilla. “Using the Natural Motion of 2D Materials to Create a New Source of Clean Energy.”
University of Arkansas News, University of Arkansas, 2017, news.uark.edu/articles/40324/using-the-
natural-motion-of-2d-materials-to-create-a-new-source-of-clean-energy.

Zyga, Lisa. “Researchers Assess Power Plants That Convert All of Their CO2 Emissions into Carbon
Nanotubes.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 20 June 2016, phys.org/news/2016-06-power-co2-emissions-carbon-
nanotubes.html.