The New York Times reported on November 5, 2021 that the US Department of Energy is going to fund research into carbon capture. I know this topic is controversial within the climate change advocate community. Expensive, unproven, unscalable, working with the fossil fuel industry, encouraging continued use of fossil fuels are just some of the aspects that I have read and heard against carbon capture. 

However from my seat, even if we were to turn off all fossil fuel burning today, It is my understanding we still need to deal with the CO2 currently in the atmosphere that remains there for many years. Somehow, we need to get those atmospheric CO2 levels down.  And that is where carbon capture comes in and why research is needed. 

To get an understanding of carbon capture, I found what I think is an excellent primer on the topic at cdrprimer.org (J Wilcox, B Kolosz, & J Freeman 2021). Quoting from its About page, "This primer reflects more than two years of thoughtful work and collaboration among dozens of authors, all experts in different areas of carbon dioxide removal. The effort spanned several workshops and an extensive period of writing, reading, and constructive feedback."  In addition to the online book, a podcast that provides a summary is also available.  

I glanced through the online book first, listened to the podcast next, and then went back to the book to glean details I missed the first time and the podcast brought to light.  

The primer goes into the various form factors carbon capture can take including those already provided by nature. It carefully defines terms as they are sometimes misused because of the various flavors.  While there are technical aspects to the material, one does not need to be a chemical engineer to follow along. In addition, time is spent on non-technical issues such as logistics,  economics, and regulation which all have their fingers in the carbon capture pie. 

For those who don't know anything about carbon capture, this material provides an excellent overview. For those who think they know about carbon capture, I would be surprised if this material didn't explain something new.  And for those who are against carbon capture, I would think it brings up facets that either counters or substantiates the anti-carbon capture claims. 

In any case, I highly recommend this reference material.