Musk offers $100 mn prize for removing CO2 from air
Geeta, Yudhvir, Sandeep and Shashi also come up with good performances
Elon Musk became the richest person in the world by dramatically improving electric vehicles, pushing forward a technology that reduces carbon-dioxide emissions and slows global warming. Now he's putting $100 million of that fortune into prizes for technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere itself.
The carbon-removal contest will be administered by the Xprize Foundation, a non-profit group that's held competitions to spur technology development to improve space travel, food and health. The new prize, the largest of its kind, will be backed by a donation from the Musk Foundation, a non-profit founded by the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
"Carbon negativity, not neutrality," Musk said in a statement. "This is not a theoretical competition… Whatever it takes. Time is of the essence."
Details of the $100 million prize for innovators who aid the development of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies were released on Monday, following an initial announcement by Musk on Twitter on January 21. Entries for the prize will open on Earth Day, celebrated on April 22. Three winners will be named for three separate prizes-$50 million, $20 million and $10 million-on the same day in 2025.
Conventional carbon capture focuses on removing CO2 from the exhaust of power plants or factories, then burying the greenhouse gas deep underground to eliminate its contribution to global warming. Today this technology captures about 0.1 per cent of global emissions and it is used in most cases by oil producers or heavy industry to, in effect, achieve carbon neutrality at a limited number of facilities. But overall reductions in worldwide emissions have been delayed for so long that climate scientists are now convinced of the need for newer technologies that remove CO2 from the air. That's what Musk means by "carbon negativity."
Scientists are clear that the world needs to first reduce emissions. But if climate change is to be limited to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, as proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's special report published in 2018, then the world may also need to capture and store as much as 20 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air. That's as much as half of current global CO2 emissions. The 1.5°C threshold is the more ambitious goal under the Paris Agreement, which all countries in the world signed five years ago.
Teams entering the Xprize competition to win a portion of Musk's $100 million will have to demonstrate a method for capturing as much as 1 tonne of CO2 per day as cheaply as possible, while proving to judges that the technology can be scaled up to remove as much as 1 billion tonnes a year.
M. Abhirath Reddy, Thakur Tilak Varma, E. Geeta Krishna, Yudhvir, B. Sandeep and Shashi Shekar Naidu hogged the limelight with splendid performances in the Hyderabad Cricket Association’s A-1 Division one-day knockout tournament on Monday.
Openers Abhirath (109) and Tilak (101) continued their run-scoring spree as they walloped cracking centuries to make light of the
216-run target set by Jai Hanuman and propel Gemini Friends to a thumping 10-wicket victory.
Geeta was the next best on the show. He belted 106 to help Balaaji CC stifle Zinda Tilismath, who failed to chase down a target of 317. H. K. Simha played second fiddle but fell just one run short of century.
In another match, Budding Star’s Yudhvir
(5/20) punched big to skittle out Khalsa for a paltry 164 while chasing 286. Akash also contributed a modest 92 for the victorious side.
B. Sandeep of Income Tax had Sri Chakra in
a spin. First he scalped a fifer to restrict Chakra to a lowly 179 and then followed it up with a brilliant 51 as the Taxmen overhauled the target with seven wickets in hand.
In another match, Secunderabad Nawabs rode on Shashi’s fine 5/26 to stop BDL at 189, just one short of their total for a thrilling win. Brief scores:
A-1 DIVISION ONE-DAY KNOCKOUT TOURNAMENT Jai Hanuman 215 in 47.5 overs (N. Anirudh Reddy 65, Anurag Vittal 63, Rathan Teja 3/45) lost to Gemini Friends 217 for no loss in 37.3 overs (M. Abhirath Reddy
109 n.o — 110b, 12x4, Thakur Tilak Varma 101 n.o — 116b,
6x4, 4x6)
Budding Star 286 in 46.5 overs (Akash 92, Yudhvir Singh 36, Shazaib 3/57, Abuzar 3/61) bt Khalsa 164 in 38 overs (Sarthak 76, Harishit 47, Yudhvir 5/20 — 9-2-205,
Tanay Tyagarajan 3/26)
Sri Chakra 179 in 44.2 overs (K. Vikas Rao 34, S. Nishant Yadav 32, M. Mukesh 38, B. Sandeep 5/24 — 9.1-1-24-5) lost to Income Tax 185/3 in 31.3 overs (B. Sandeep 51 n.o, D. Harshavardhan 76, Shiv Charan Singh 36)
Secunderabad Nawabs 190/9 in 50 overs (Shujan Bandaru 52, Harish Singh 62) bt BDL 189 in 48.2 overs (B. Revant 54, K. Hima Teja 34, Shashi Shekar Naidu
5/26 — 6-0-26-5)
Balaaji CC 316 in 48.5 overs (E. Geeta Krishna 106 —
70b, 10x4, 8x6, H. K. Simha 99, G. Ganesh 54, Neel Chakravarthy 3/63) bt Zinda Tilismath 173 in 43.4 overs (Kiran Reddy 30, S. Balaji Reddy 36, Pabba Nilesh 3/43, Achyut 3/11)
Cambridge XI 179 in 40.3 overs (Vinay Yadav 84, C. Hitesh Yadav 4/37, Bhagath Varma 4/38) lost to R. Dayanand 182/8 in 44.5 overs (M. A. Shanmukha 31, Bhagath Varma 54, Nitesh Reddy 35 n.o, M. Shashank 3/11)
Charminar CC 173 in 44.1 overs (Ali Diamond Kacchi
62, Ronald R. Rodrigues 4/40) lost to Union Bank of India 174/4 in 33.2 overs (Abhinav Kumar 64 n.o, Amol Shinde 30)
A-2 DIVISION (TWO-DAY)
New Star 366/9 in 90 overs (Muddassir 89, Yash Raj
79, Vivek 4/60) vs Superstar.
Hyderabad Patriots vs Greenlands (Greenlands did not turn up for the match). Points: Hyderabad Patriots
5, Greenlands 0.