Can power from nuclear reactors be used for removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere?

Question

If a big company builds a nuclear powered gas-conversion plant, to convert atmospheric air with greenhouse gases to cleaner air plus a commercial product such as propane, can they make money that way, or would it cost them too much?

Answer 1

Its not possible to convert CO2 into anything in a reactor as far as I know.

You can use photosynthesis to store carbon in a plant. That is why tree planting is encouraged, because as we destroy are forest we exacerbate the problem.

Nuclear power does not not need to emit CO2, so it is carbon neutral. Which neither helps nor hurts from a carbon perspective.

Propane is a derivative product from Petroleum refining. To make it you create an awful lot of carbon emissions. Natural Gas has lower net carbon emmisions and we have larger reserves of this in the US then Petroleum.

Answer 2

It's possible to use energy to produce hydrogen, and hydrogen to convert CO2.  Energy can also be used to condense CO2, deep-well inject it, deep-ocean inject it... so yes energy can be used to do that.

Nuclear power is in fact a very clean source of energy, and one that does not create greenhouse gasses.  People are (irrationally) fearful of radioactivity, even though we dig it out of the ground in the first place.  And when concentrated, it can be a hazard.  But not so bad compared to air pollution, coal mining accidents, black lung... etc.   But the requirements for building a nuclear plant are very stringent, and therefore very expensive.   Other energy sources (solar, wind etc.) could also be used.  The trick is to have enough surplus power to be able to use it to sequester the greenhouse gasses.  Also, the earth itself is responding to help sequester them, as long as the mechanisms aren't overwhelmed.  

Answer 3

i never though i would here nuclear reactor and cleaner in the smae sentance but you have a point, it might be possable

Answer 4

That's an awesome question one I thought of myself. Why can they not find a way to rid the earth of the greenhouse effect. We can develop weapons really easy

Answer 5

It is not economically feasible. The nuclear power plant is very expensive to build but somehow economical to operate compare to other energy sources. The commercial product you have in mind is also energy intensive. I think you need to outsource.