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‘CO{-2} catcher’ to reverse global warming?

NEW YORK: It has long been the holy grail for those who believe that technology can save us from catastrophic climate change: a device that can “suck” carbon dioxide from the air, reducing the warming effect of the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas produced each year.

A group of U.S. scientists said they have made a breakthrough towards creating such a machine. Led by Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University in New York, they plan to build and demonstrate a prototype within two years that could economically capture a tonne of carbon dioxide a day from the air, about the same per passenger as a flight from London to New York.

The prototype “scrubber” would be small enough to fit inside a shipping container. Mr. Lackner estimates it will initially cost around £100,000 to build, but the carbon cost of making each device would be “small potatoes” compared with the amount each would capture, he said.

The scientists stressed their invention is not a magic bullet to solve climate change. It would take millions of the devices to soak up the world’s carbon emissions, and the carbon dioxide trapped would still need to be disposed of. But the team says the technology may be the best way to avert dangerous temperature rises, as fossil fuel use is predicted to increase sharply in coming decades despite international efforts. Climate experts at a monitoring station in Hawaii this month reported carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have reached a record 387 parts per million (ppm) — 40 per cent higher than before the industrial revolution.

The quest for a machine that could reverse the trend by “scrubbing” carbon from the air is seen as one of the greatest challenges in climate science. Richard Branson has promised $25 million to anyone who succeeds. Mr. Lackner said: “I wouldn’t write across the front page that the problem is solved, but this will help. We are in a hurry to deal with climate change and will be very hard pressed to stop the train before we get to 450ppm [carbon dioxide in the atmosphere]. This can help stop the train.”

Although it is relatively easy to find chemicals that absorb carbon dioxide, it was harder to then strip the gas from the so-called sorbent for reuse. A report on carbon capture from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2005 dismissed the air capture as unworkable.

The team said it made a significant breakthrough that reduces the amount of energy required to recharge the sorbent. It is reluctant to discuss details, but a U.S. patent application shows that it is based on changes in humidity. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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