Fossil fuel-related technologies are gradually being replaced by innovations such as electric vehicles, green hydrogen, biofuels, solar and wind energy, as well as more controversial proposals such as nuclear energy (mainly fission) and carbon capture. Bill Gates has backed some of these technologies with investments exceeding $2 billion through Breakthrough Energy, a nonprofit organization focused on finding solutions, especially for the industrial sector.
Sectors such as the steel and cement industries, which represent approximately a third of global emissions, face the challenge of obtaining the high levels of heat necessary for their production processes from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
With Gates’ support, Direct Air Capture, a company dedicated to developing technology for absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, has secured contracts worth $3.5 billion in the United States. However, this technology has generated criticism from environmentalists, who argue that the resources could be used for other solutions that truly transform the energy and production system. Instead, they are a distraction on the path to a fossil fuel-free era. On the other hand, some believe that these technologies could play a crucial role during the transition to low-carbon economies, until alternative energies and fuels reach a dominant position.
In addition to carbon capture, technologies such as mini-nuclear are already being implemented in various sectors, including the chemical industry, which relies heavily on gas for the production of plastics. Dow Chemical, one of the leading companies in this sector, has partnered with X-Energy Reactor Company to carry out a project at the Seadrift plant in Texas, supported by the United States Department of Energy. Dow is also investing in carbon capture and storage, combined with circular hydrogen, with the goal of developing the first net-zero carbon cracker for ethylene and derivatives at its plant in Fort Saskatchewan, thanks to support from the Canadian government.
In the steel sector, the commercialization of nuclear fission energy, which joins atoms instead of separating them, as occurs in nuclear fusion energy, is being explored. Steel producer Nucor has entered into a partnership with Helio, an energy company, to develop a plant that will generate 500 megawatts of power by 2030. This plant will be 10 times larger than the one they are already building for Microsoft and will be completed in 2028. These advances are occurring despite initial skepticism about the commercial viability of nuclear fission power, since it requires more energy to produce than it produces. Just a year ago, the University of California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory demonstrated that more energy can be generated through nuclear fusion than using the lasers that triggered the reaction.