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I wonder how practical it would be to add something smelly and distinctive to CO2 the way we do with natural gas? Otherwise a CO2 leak is really mysterious. It
by jefftk 3y ago
I wonder how practical it would be to add something smelly and distinctive to CO2 the way we do with natural gas? Otherwise a CO2 leak is really mysterious. It could be in quite low concentrations, to the point where you would only smell it if the air was getting to dangerous levels.
This wouldn't help with a release from a natural source, but if we are ramping up carbon capture efforts maybe we'll see more industrial accidents like this one?
- detaro 3y agocould be harder to find something that sticks with the CO2 given the molecule sizes? CO2 is also relatively easy to monitor, so sensors + awareness of people living/working nearby should also cover a lot. But both of course only would give better warning, not solve the challenge of dealing with the situation when it has happened.
- crazygringo 3y ago> CO2 is also relatively easy to monitor And yet we inexplicably don't monitor it at all. You can download apps to show you national and local levels of all sorts of pollutants... but not CO2. Outdoor CO2 is tracked at a single point on the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii... and that's pretty much it. It's bizarre. It's easy to buy an indoor CO2 monitor (I use one to determine when I should open my windows more/less to keep the air inside fresh), but at a local/national monitoring level it simply doesn't exist.
- diebeforei485 3y agoCO2 monitors are quite expensive for normal people. Good ones like the Aranet4 are in the $200 range.
- detaro 3y agoHaving an effective warning system is not reliant on "every person buys their own sensors". And compared to many other threats, effective CO2 sensors are very cheap, so a community that knows it needs them can do things.
- EuropeOverlords 3y ago[flagged]
- dghlsakjg 3y agoThe article you’re commenting on has quite a bit of information about this and industry efforts around it. Short answer is yes, it’s possible, and yes they are working on doing it.
- eternityforest 3y agoCo2 is used as a marker of when the air is too stale inside. Why not just mass produce real sensors(most <$50 sensors are currently are fake and just guess based on VOC) so we can make those cheap, since it's already something we should probably keep track of? Maybe they could be integrated into phones.
- edgineer 3y agoDifficult if used for beverages. In my experience CO2 may not have an odor but at high concentrations it burns the hell out of your nostrils anyway.