Ethan Novek wants to capture carbon and clean up fossil fuels

Editor’s Note: This feature is part of Tomorrow’s Hero, a series profiling young innovators transforming the world for a brighter future. Discover their stories here.

“You can’t achieve the Paris accord values unless you have some form of carbon capture,” says Ethan Novek.

The 19-year-old founder of Innovator Energy is keen to stress the urgency of the problem. The majority of energy is still sourced by burning fossil fuels, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. Continuing to do so at current rates will make it impossible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

That is, unless the act of burning fossil fuels can be cleaned up – and Novek is in the business of making that happen.

An age-old problem

Carbon capture is not a new idea. One method, oxy-combustion, was pioneered in the late 19th century, while another, using chemical absorption, was patented in the 1930s.

“These key technology elements have a very long history at a very substantial industrial scale,” explains Niall Mac Dowell, senior lecturer at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.

In West Texas, the oil industry has used carbon dioxide in enhanced oil recovery since the 1960s and ’70s, he adds. It remains the most popular use for captured CO2. More recently, intrepid startups have sought to turn carbon dioxide in to gasoline and ethanol, a liquid alcohol.

Fossil fuels still comprise the largest source of energy consumed worldwide, coal being the worst CO2-emitter of all. Carbon dioxide emissions are closely tied to climate change, and its effects are already at our doorstep.

Scroll through the gallery to see how communities around the world are being affected

Florida —

A flooded street in Miami Beach in September 2015. The flood was caused by a combination of seasonal high tides and what many believe is a rise in sea levels due to climate change. Miami Beach has already built miles of seawalls and has embarked on a five-year, $400 million stormwater pump program to keep the ocean waters from inundating the city.

Virginia —

Sea water collects in front of a home in Tangier, Virginia, in May 2017. Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay has lost two-thirds of its landmass since 1850. Now, the 1.2 square mile island is suffering from floods and erosion and is slowly sinking. A paper published in the journal Scientific Reports states that "the citizens of Tangier may become among the first climate change refugees in the continental USA."

Austria —

The Pasterze glacier is Austria's largest and it's shrinking rapidly: the sign on the trail indicates where the foot of the glacier reached in 2015, a year before this photo was taken. The European Environmental Agency predicts the volume of European glaciers will decline by between 22 percent and 89 percent by 2100, depending on the future intensity of greenhouse gases.

Greenland —

A NASA research aircraft flies over retreating glaciers on the Upper Baffin Bay coast of Greenland. Scientists say the Arctic is one of the regions hit hardest by climate change.

Switzerland —

A wooden pole that had been driven into the ice the year before now stands exposed as the Aletsch glacier melts and sinks at a rate of about 10-13 meters per year near Bettmeralp, Switzerland.

Louisiana —

In the Mississippi Delta, trees are withering away because of rising saltwater, creating "Ghost Forests."

California —

A street is flooded in Sun Valley, Southern California in February 2017. Powerful storms have swept Southern California after years of severe drought, in a "drought-to-deluge" cycle that some believe is consistent with the consequences of global warming.

South Africa —

The carcass of a dead cow lies in the Black Umfolozi River, dry from the effects of a severe drought, in Nongoma district north west from Durban, in November 2015. South Africa ranks as the 30th driest country in the world and is considered a water-scarce region. A highly variable climate causes uneven distribution of rainfall, making droughts even more extreme.

Sudan —

A gigantic cloud of dust known as "Haboob" advances over Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Moving like a thick wall, it carries sand and dust burying homes, while increasing evaporation in a region that's struggling to preserve water supplies. Experts say that without quick intervention, parts of the African country -- one of the most vulnerable in the world -- could become uninhabitable as a result of climate change.

Maldives —

Low tide reveals the extent of accelerated erosion shown by the amount of exposed beach rocks on Maafushi beach in the Maldives. This is the world's lowest-lying country, with no part lying more than six feet above sea level. The island nation's future is under threat from anticipated global sea level rise, with many of its islands already suffering from coastal erosion.

Argentina —

Los Glaciares National Park, part of the third largest ice field in the world, on November 27, 2015 in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. The majority of the almost 50 large glaciers in the park have been retreating during the past 50 years due to warming temperatures, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

Kenya —

A boy from the remote Turkana tribe in Northern Kenya walks across a dried up river near Lodwar, Kenya. Millions of people across Africa are facing a critical shortage of water and food, a situation made worse by climate change.

India —