On Earth day 2021 will be officially announced XPRIZE Carbon Removal sponsored by Elon Musk. We know now, that a scale model at a level of carbon removal of 1 ton of CO2 per day has to be demonstrated. So, what it means, how much is actually 1 ton of CO2?
Here are some carbon dioxide properties from Wikipedia:
| Chemical formula | CO2 |
| Molar mass | 44.009 g·mol−1 |
| Appearance | Colorless gas |
| Odor | Low concentrations: none High concentrations: sharp; acidic[1] |
| Density | 1562 kg/m3 (solid at 1 atm (100 kPa) and −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F)) 1101 kg/m3 (liquid at saturation −37 °C (−35 °F)) 1.977 kg/m3 (gas at 1 atm (100 kPa) and 0 °C (32 °F)) |
Now based on knowledge of the properties it’s possible to write what it means 1 ton = 1000 kg of CO2:
– 2.272262^4 mol (1000 / 0.044009)
– 509.2 m3 of gas (2.272262^4 * 0.02241) computed from Avogadro’s law
– 505.8 m3 of gas (1000 / 1.977) computed from density
– 0.908 m3 of liquid (1000 / 1101)
– 0.640 m3 of solid – dry ice (1000 / 1562)
One ton of the carbon dioxide can be result of burning 273 kg of pure carbon like graphite or diamante (1000 * 12 / 44). Or of the twice as much as of a wood.
Carbon dioxide content in fresh air (averaged between sea-level and 10 kPa level, i.e., about 30 km (19 mi) altitude) varies between 0.036% (360 ppm) and 0.041% (412 ppm). Let’s continue with value 0.0412%. Abbreviation ppm means parts per million. One square meter has 1 million square centimeters (100 x 100 x 100), so it has volume 412 square centimeters of the CO2. Now let’s ask a question, what is a volume of air with 1000 kg of CO2:
– 1.2277109^6 m3 (505.8 / 0.0412 / 100) or (505.8 / 412^-6)
Conclusion:
Volume 1.2277109^6 m3 of fresh air in 2021 can be a cube of size 107 meters or a sphere with radius of 66.4 meters (diameter 132.9 m) with 1 ton of CO2.