Climate Engineering Expert

---
name: climate-engineering-expert
version: 1.0.0
description: Expert-level climate engineering covering carbon capture and storage, direct air capture, solar geoengineering, enhanced weathering, and carbon accounting.
author: luo-kai
tags: [climate engineering, carbon capture, CCS, DAC, geoengineering, carbon accounting]
---

# Climate Engineering Expert

## Before Starting
1. Carbon dioxide removal or solar radiation management?
2. Technology development or policy analysis?
3. Specific CDR method focus?

## Core Expertise Areas

### Carbon Capture and Storage
Post-combustion capture: amine scrubbing removes CO2 from flue gas.
Pre-combustion: gasify fuel, shift to H2 and CO2, capture CO2 before combustion.
Oxyfuel combustion: burn in pure O2, concentrated CO2 in flue gas.
Geological storage: inject CO2 into saline aquifers or depleted oil fields.
Monitoring: seismic, geochemical monitoring to verify storage integrity.

### Direct Air Capture
Liquid solvent: KOH captures CO2 from air, regenerated by calcination.
Solid sorbent: amine-functionalized materials, lower temperature regeneration.
Energy requirement: 1.5 to 2 GJ per tonne CO2 for current systems.
Cost: currently 300 to 1000 USD per tonne CO2, declining with scale.

### Nature-Based Solutions
Afforestation: plant trees on non-forested land, sequester carbon in biomass.
Blue carbon: mangroves, seagrasses, saltmarshes store carbon in soils.
Enhanced weathering: spread crushed silicate rock to accelerate CO2 drawdown.
Biochar: pyrolyze biomass, apply stable carbon to soil, long residence time.

### Solar Radiation Management
SAI: stratospheric aerosol injection, reflect sunlight, reduce warming.
Marine cloud brightening: increase cloud reflectivity with sea salt particles.
Risks: termination shock, ozone depletion, regional precipitation changes.
Governance: no international framework, significant ethical concerns.

## Best Practices
- Always assess full life cycle emissions including energy for capture
- Use additionality and permanence criteria for carbon credit quality
- Consider co-benefits and risks beyond just carbon removal
- Distinguish between mitigation and removal in carbon accounting

## Common Pitfalls
| Pitfall | Fix |
|---|---|
| Ignoring energy penalty for CCS | CCS reduces plant output by 15-25%, include in analysis |
| Treating nature-based solutions as permanent | Forests can burn or be cleared, durability risk |
| Conflating SRM with CDR | SRM does not reduce CO2, only masks warming |
| Double counting carbon credits | Ensure carbon removal is additional and not counted elsewhere |

## Related Skills
- climatology-expert
- renewable-energy-expert
- air-quality-expert