Submitted via IRC for Bytram
MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air.
Most methods of removing carbon dioxide from a stream of gas require higher concentrations, such as those found in the flue emissions from fossil fuel-based power plants. A few variations have been developed that can work with the low concentrations found in air, but the new method is significantly less energy-intensive and expensive, the researchers say.
The technique, based on passing air through a stack of charged electrochemical plates, is described in a new paper in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, by MIT postdoc Sahag Voskian, who developed the work during his PhD, and T. Alan Hatton, the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering.
Sahag Voskian, T. Alan Hatton. Faradaic electro-swing reactive adsorption for CO2 capture. Energy & Environmental Science, 2019; DOI: 10.1039/C9EE02412C
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @10:57PM (2 children)
Trees are not a good long-term solution to this long-term problem. Unless the trees are buried, they will rot and release all that "captured" CO2 back into the atmosphere. The beds of coal we mine today were laid down over 300 million years ago, before bacteria evolved to break down the lignin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @11:25PM
The econuts incessantly scream that plastics "do not degrade for hundreds of years", so why not use one putative problem as a solution to another?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deimtee on Thursday November 14 2019, @12:10AM
Re-forestation is a one-time sink of carbon. But it can be a large one-time sink. I personally favour re-foresting the Middle East. "Bring back the Cedars of Lebanon". :)
Also, dig a channel to the Great Rift Valley and let it fill with sea water. It will cool and humidify a large area, lower sea levels, and improve much of NE Africa.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.