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If you insist on capturing CO₂ then capture it somewhere it is available in abundance instead of ~400 parts per million: at the source. Capture it at gas turbine exhausts, at coal-burning power station smoke stacks, maybe on board ships if the power is available to do so. Use some other process for capturing atmospheric CO₂, e.g. lime stone capture. Trying to actively capture airborne CO₂ is like creating needle-in-haystack-finding factories, it is possible but a waste of resources.


Would it be simpler to attempt to capture and compress the total of the exhaust of turbines, co2 or not, than to attempt to separate the co2?


No, that would just postpone whatever problem existed in the first place since you'd be left with a huge mass of compressed exhaust gases which do not have any use. Since those exhaust gases consist mostly of nitrogen (due to it forming ~80% of the atmosphere) this would also entail a massive waste of energy expended in compressing that nitrogen.

Separating out the CO₂ would make it possible to either use it in some form where it replaces CO₂ otherwise produced by other means - e.g. for welding, cooling, carbonation of liquids etc. - or to sequester it in some way.




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