'CO2 scrubber’ could help slow global warming
Pastor Dale Morgan
'CO2 scrubber’ could help slow global warming*
Last Updated: 1:05PM BST 01/06/2008
A new machine designed to “suck” carbon dioxide from the air could help
in the fight to save the world from climate change, according to physicists.
CO2 'scrubber' by Karl Lackner
A group of scientists are devising a 'CO2 scrubber’ which they claim
will capture one tonne of CO2 from the air every day, about the same per
passenger as a flight from London to New York, reducing the warming
effect of greenhouse gases produced each year.
Although the idea has been mooted as a possible weapon in the battle
against climate change, it falls far short of a quick fix solution.
The 'scrubber’ devices – small enough to fit inside a shipping container
– would need to be produced in their millions to soak up human carbon
emissions, and the CO2 trapped would still need to be disposed of.
The prototype will cost about £100,000 and take about two years to
construct at a laboratory in Tucson, Arizona.
Environmentalists may warn that so-called technological solutions to
global warming undermine attempts to promote greener lifestyles and
industries.
Physicist Klaus Lackner, of New York’s Columbia University, who led the
U.S. team behind the invention, said the CO2 scrubber offered more hope
than current efforts to cut carbon emissions by reducing fossil fuel use.
“I’d rather have a technology that allows us to use fossil fuels without
destroying the planet, because people are going to use them anyway” he said.
Professor Lackner said carbon dioxide could be removed from the
atmosphere by absorbing it in various chemical filters and a newly
discovered property of absorbent plastic sheets – which are routinely
used to purify water – would be used to used to clean those filters of
CO2 so they can then be reused to carry on the job.
The captured carbon dioxide could then be pumped into greenhouses to
boost plant growth.
Climate experts have reported that CO2 levels in the atmosphere are now
40% higher than before the industrial revolution and “scrubbing” the
carbon from the air is seen as one of the greatest challenges in climate
science. Sir Richard Branson has promised £12.6m to anyone who succeeds.