Greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, can be trapped instead of released to the atmosphere in the conventional electricity generation processes.
There are several way to capture it, but most of them need extra energy.
What I found particularly interesting was the possibility of capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air. Global Research Technologies formulated a plastic that attracts and holds carbon dioxide molecules. When the strips of the plastic are fully loaded, they are placed in a humid atmosphere. The plastic also attracts water molecules, which push the carbon dioxide directly away from the strips so that it can be captured.
GRT states that its air-capture system is about one thousand times more efficient than a tree of equal size. The extra energy needed is due to the recovery of the sorbent that has higher economic value.
Here is a picture of the air-capture system on a massive use scale.
There is a very interesting article in The Economist about this subject. It explains in a more detailed way how is carbon dioxide captured from the air and it also mentions the possibility of producing synthetic hydrocarbons from the captured CO2 and hydrogen. Of course this would not solve Mankind's dependency on fossil fuels, but it can be an alternative before turning into renewable energy production.
No comments:
Post a Comment