Microsoft Signs a Deal With Danish Energy Company Ørsted To Capture Carbon Dioxide Emission

Microsoft continues its effort to support clean energy. In its recent move, the American multinational technology corporation made an international partnership to capture carbon dioxide emissions.

Microsoft, Ørsted Working Together to Capture Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Microsoft recently supported a significant initiative to absorb carbon dioxide emissions from a wood-burning power station. A deal to purchase credits for 2.76 million metric tons of carbon dioxide absorbed at Ørsted's Asnaes Power Station for over 11 years, The Verge reported.

According to a news release from Ørsted, it's one of the greatest agreements any corporation has made to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. By 2030, Microsoft wants to be carbon negative-that is, to be eliminating more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it produces through operations. This step is meant to assist the business in achieving that objective.

Microsoft's involvement in the project was essential as Ørsted wouldn't have been able to score a 20-year contract with the Danish Energy Agency and install carbon capture devices at its power plant without the tech giant's support.

In its announcement, Ørsted acknowledged the Danish state's and Microsoft's support, noting that both were necessary to make the project feasible.

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Burning Plants to Capture C02 Emissions Draws Debate

Ørsted burn wood chips and straw, fuels are known as "biomass." Burning biomass, which can also include agricultural waste and other plant material, as a sustainable energy source is debatable.

Burning wood still produces carbon dioxide. The claim is that plants used to produce biomass, such as trees, naturally absorb and store CO2 while they are alive. Replanting the trees or plants will allow you to have carbon-neutral fuel.

By incorporating systems that can filter CO2 out of the smokestacks of its power plants, Ørsted is taking things a step further and preventing them from rising into the atmosphere. It believes this will increase the efficiency of its biomass-burning plants. They want to sell Microsoft credits for each ton of surplus carbon dioxide they absorb and bury it beneath the North Sea. Microsoft can then claim that it has offset part of its greenhouse gas emissions using those credits.

All of that may seem like a tricky balancing act, and it is. According to earlier studies, burning woody biomass can result in higher CO2 emissions than what is absorbed. This is because just capturing smokestack emissions does not consider all the possible contamination from tree-cutting and wood-transportation activities. Additionally, trees or other plants may take a while to develop to a stage where humans can depend on them to absorb a sizable amount of CO2.

According to Phillip Goodman, Microsoft's portfolio director for carbon removal, the specifics are essential. Using biomass "harvested from appropriate areas" and accounting for all its "process" emissions are requirements for an efficient carbon capture operation.

In a previous report from Science Times, Microsoft had also decided to purchase a nuclear fusion generator -considered the Holy Grail of energy from Helion Energy. The company partnered because it reportedly supports its long-term goal for clean energy.