This meeting will be hybrid: in-person at Comer Seminar Room and over Zoom. Please contact the seminar organizer with your full name to be cleared from the waiting room.
Title: Economically viable industrial CO2 removal as part of the production of raw materials from industrial hemp
Abstract:
Renaissance Fiber, LLC -- a North Carolina company -- is developing scaled, low-cost, permanent CO2 removal as a built-in step in the production of materials from industrial hemp. In our system, CO2 removal is a byproduct of wastewater treatment, enables recovery of valuable raw material, and serves as a cost-reduction. Analogous to a thermodynamic chemical system, CO2 sequestration becomes economically "spontaneous", and its scale directly couples with demand for essential raw materials. Thus, it becomes possible to build scaled CO2 removal into core industrial operations. Functionally, our system represents a negative point source emission of CO2. This talk will present the basic concept we're employing, its basis in carbon cycling and established CO2 removal strategies, and how the system interfaces with the environment.
Bio:
Michael Long founded Renaissance Fiber in 2018 in response to loosening of restrictions on cultivation of industrial hemp in the US. Renaissance Fiber seeks to produce clean natural materials from hemp for textiles and other industries. Prior to founding Renaissance Fiber, Michael was a post-doc and research associate at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, focusing on atmospheric and ocean chemistry and physics. He has a B.S. in Meterology from N.C. State University, an M.S. in Marine Science from the University of North Carolina - Wilmington, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia. He is a native of North Carolina.