Reducing CO2...

Climate Lab

With a series of papers published in chemistry and chemical engineering journals, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have advanced the case for extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air using newly-developed adsorbent materials.

The technique might initially be used to supply carbon dioxide for such industrial applications as fuel production from algae or enhanced oil recovery. But the method could later be used to supplement the capture of CO2 from power plant flue gases as part of efforts to reduce concentrations of the atmospheric warming chemical.

In a detailed economic feasibility study, the researchers projected that a CO2 removal unit the size of an ocean shipping container could extract approximately a thousand tons of the gas per year with operating costs of approximately $100 per ton. The researchers also reported on advances in adsorbent materials for selectively capturing carbon dioxide.

As much as I want to "stand up and cheer": technology has never been the issue. Do we have the political will to carry out - in this climate (pun intended) - such an audacious enterprise? Capturing CO2 from the air could mean things like: jobs for those suitably prepared. But, for those invested heavily in the science or the lobby pro/con climate change, it announces [to me] an inevitable fight, that in our effort to score "sound bite points," that by the time any compromise is reached, we all in the end may lose.

Georgia Tech Research News: Reducing CO2