Canadian scientist creates atmosphere-saving CO2 scrubbing machine

by Stevie Smith - Sep 30 2008, 12:53

An ever-present point of concern for the planet’s future welfare, worries over damaging CO2 emissions could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a University of Calgary climate change scientist who’s developed a machine capable of removing CO2 from the air.

University of Calgary team creates CO2 atmosphere-scrubbing machine. Image: Dr. Keats/Flickr.

More pointedly, David Keith and a team of researchers working out of the University of Calgary have been diligently looking for a way to capture harmful greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the air by utilising “near-commercial” technology.The team now believes it is close to achieving that goal with the development of a relatively simple machine that can capture, or “scrub” the trace amount of CO2 present in the air at any place on the planet.“The climate problem is too big to solve easily with the tools we have,” explained Keith, director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy’s (ISEEE) Energy and Environmental Systems Group and a professor of chemical and petroleum engineering.“While it’s important to get started doing things we know how to do, like wind power nuclear power and ‘regular’ carbon capture and storage, it’s also vital to start thinking about radical new ideas and approaches to solving this problem.”According to Keith, the team is working hard to turn its scrub machine theory into an engineering reality in order to help cut down CO2 emissions produced from transportation-based diffuse sources such as vehicles and airplanes.The proposed air capture system differs from existing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which is already a contributing factor in the strategy of federal governments as they strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, while CCS involves installing equipment at, say, a coal-fired power plant to capture CO2 produced during the coal-burning process before then piping the emissions for permanent underground storage in a geological reservoir, air capture machines will be able to literally remove the CO2 present in ambient air everywhere.In applying the technology, Keith offers that: “A company could, in principle, contract with an oilsands plant near Fort McMurray to remove CO2 from the air and could build its air capture plant wherever it’s cheapest -- China, for example -- and the same amount of CO2 would be removed.”In demonstrating the technology in practice, Keith and his team used a custom-built tower to capture CO2 directly from the air while requiring less than 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity per tonne of carbon dioxide. The tower unit was able to capture the equivalent of approximately 20 tonnes per year of CO2 on a single square metre of scrubbing material -- which amounts to the average level of emissions produced by one person each year in North America.While still in its early stages, the atmosphere-scrubbing technology has already been touted by environmentalists as an energy-efficient and cost-effective way to complement other approaches designed to help reduce transportation emissions, such as biofuels and electric engines.It is the team’s future goal to see the technology further developed to the point where it can be used through commercial-scale facilities solely focused on removing CO2 emissions from the air.

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GCSep 30th, 2008 - 13:56:36

I love Canadians they are so smart.

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MikeSep 30th, 2008 - 14:28:32

It'd be pretty crazy if they could put this in every car but this probably wont solve anything in a corporate environment... companies would probably just pollute more and scrub enough air to keep them polluting at the same amount as they are currently.

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Greg ClarkeSep 30th, 2008 - 14:43:23

The point of technology of this type is that it doesn't have to be installed in a car. Instead you install one big one outside the city limits that scrubs out the CO2 emitted by all the cars.

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MelvinSep 30th, 2008 - 14:54:55

Now Stelmach should give this guy a grant to develop this technology so it can be applied to the Oil Sands projects..

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JackSep 30th, 2008 - 14:56:02

I'm so glad to hear about this. Now we don't have to change our behaviour or anything.
We can just keep on going like we were. That's a relief!

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ArvindSep 30th, 2008 - 14:56:12

What will happen to those tens of thousands of 'square metre of scrubbing material containing 20 tonnes of CO2'? They will be dumped somewhere on earth or thrown to another planet?

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RonSep 30th, 2008 - 15:00:30

I'm pretty sure that this new technology requires more energy and maintenance and is less effective than trees. Green technology should be truly green.

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CPSep 30th, 2008 - 15:23:07

What happens to the filters and the CO2 in the filters? It's not in the air, but where does it go? Great idea but in a mass-produced environment you'll end up with a landfill of CO2 filters.

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MattSep 30th, 2008 - 15:30:35

I completely agree with Jack...now that this technology is available I'm buying a Hummer and cranking my A/C! 20 tonnes a year, nonsense! Its up to Canadians to support this new technology and crank our carbon output to at least 40 tonnes.

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DerekSep 30th, 2008 - 15:53:19

I'm not sold on the idea of allowing North American industry to keep on maximizing pollution in exchange for running carbon scrubbers in China. We need to reduce pollution as well as implementing technology to clean up the pollution we have already been flooding the planet with.

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