Can a CO2 'hoover' help stop climate change?
11 May 2007
Scientists have invented a greenhouse gas 'hoover' - an ingenious device that can suck carbon dioxide out of air, ready to be stored somewhere safe. Could the kit help stop our climate-change concerns?
Antenna investigates...
Climate scientists say we need to drastically cut our carbon emissions to stand any chance of mitigating climate change. But with the world's population on the up, some experts think this alone won't be enough. Environmental technologies need to be part of the answer too.
Now scientists from Columbia University and Global Research Technologies have developed a nifty new gadget that can soak up carbon dioxide, CO2 - one of the main greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.
This is an artist's impression of what the new capturing device could look like.
Image: Global Research Technologies
How does the kit work?
The device extracts CO2 directly from air. On the front it has a wide opening lined with an absorbent material that acts like a giant sponge. This soaks up CO2. A liquid flows over this material, picking up the gas molecules. This liquid then goes to a separating chamber. Here, electricity separates out the CO2 again to make a stream of pure gas.
The prototype device in the lab.
Image: Global Research Technologies
At the moment the device is the size of a small car, and can collect about 5 tonnes of CO2 from the air a year. That's about half the annual CO2 emissions per person in the UK. But scaling the device up, a collector the size of a large shipping container could collect 300 tonnes of CO2 every year.
The gas could then be compressed and stored deep in the ocean or buried underground. Some CO2 could also be useful in industrial processes such as oil recovery, and in the future scientists might even be able to recycle it to make carbon-based fuels.
The new device can trap carbon dioxide 1000 times faster than a tree, Earth's natural CO2 eater.
Allen Wright from Global Research Technologies is really excited about the new kit. 'To our knowledge this is the first device of its kind. It could help compensate for carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise be really hard to get rid of.'
'On a large scale you'd need millions of these devices to significantly cut global carbon emissions, but I think it's entirely do-able that we can deal with atmospheric carbon dioxide on a global scale in this way.'
Allen Wright, President of Global Research Technologies, who worked with Klaus Lackner from Columbia University on the project.
Image: Global Research Technologies
But what do UK experts think? Geoff Maitland from the Energy Futures Lab says the new technology sounds promising: 'One of the major problems with curbing CO2 is dealing with emissions from things like transport, which are spread over a large area. Capturing CO2 directly from the atmosphere is a good attempt to address this problem.'
'I think it is a good approach in principle, but there are some practical problems with simply vacuuming up CO2. You need to really think about the energy requirements needed to do this, and make sure you're not just shifting the problem elsewhere.'
Geoff Maitland, Energy Futures Lab, Imperial College London
Image: Imperial College
So will the new device really help cover up our carbon footprint? Catherine Pearce, International Climate Campaigner from Friends of the Earth, is sceptical.
'I think we should be concentrating more on implementing the technologies we already have such as sustainable energy resources. Why should we resort to using technologies like this which are likely to be very expensive when we already have low-cost ways to increase our energy efficiency and decrease emissions?'
Catherine Pearce, International Climate Campaigner, Friends of the Earth
Image: Friends of the Earth
'Technologies like this could be useful as part of the longer-term strategy for combating climate change, but they are currently years away. According to the latest scientific reports we've got less than ten years to act.'
But Geoff disagrees. 'Developing new technologies like these is essential for cutting our carbon dioxide emissions and tackling climate change. Using current and future renewable energy sources will be part of the solution, but for many decades to come they will simply not be enough to meet the world's energy needs.'
'Even if everyone in the world stopped using carbon-based energy today we'd still have serious problems with our global carbon dioxide levels,' agrees Allen. 'I think removing carbon dioxide directly from the air is the only way of really controlling the levels in our atmosphere.'
Allen with the prototype.
Image: Global Research Technologies