Mechanical Trees to capture Carbon

 

                           Mechanical Trees Capture CO2 

Centre for Negative Carbon Emissions(CSNE) Arizona state University have developed ‘Mechanical Trees’ that capture CO2 passively and sequester it for industrial and agricultural use.

 

The Mechanical trees may look like a real trees, but performance to absorb carbon is better than a real trees much moe efficient in performance. Stand out about 30 feet tall and have more than 150 discs. These structures suck carbon dioxide out of the air. In addition to removing CO2 from the air, the system allows the captured high purity CO2 to be safely and permanently removed from the atmosphere. The mechanical Trees can be built where we can not grow the trees. 

The technology involves discs of sorbent stacked in columns. When a column is fully extended, the discs are exposed to air and capture atmospheric CO2. Once full, the discs are then lowered back into the column where the CO2 is extracted and either sequestered or sold for commercial use.

A cluster of 12 trees will be capable of removing one metric ton of CO2 per day, at a cost of less than $100 per ton. According to the researchers, this will be the lowest cost across the carbon removal industry, making it a viable solution to mitigate climate change at scale. 

Mechanical trees require no energy to function and pull carbon dioxide out of the air as the wind passes through them. 

The technology will be brought to market by Dublin-based Silicon Kingdom Holdings (SKH), for whom Lackner will act as chief scientific advisor. SKH will deploy the technology in a pilot CO2 farm targeting 100 metric tons of CO2capture per day. Full-scale CO2 farms using the mechanical trees will be capable of removing up to 3.8 million metric tons of CO2 annually, according to the researchers.  

This technology would contribute to removing carbon from the air and could be commercialised while having a positive environmental impact.

The captured CO2  compress the high-concentration CO2 and then can sell it for use in industrial applications, including making drinks fizzy, creating fuel and extracting oil. “You can buy liquid CO2 which is delivered by truck in order to fill fire extinguishers and myriad other things for prices between $100 and $200 a ton.”

Building 1200 carbon - cleansing metal columns is enough to suck up nearly 8000 cars worth of emissions per year of CO2. The costs is less than $100 per metric ton for pure CO2

Carbon capture is gradually gaining momentum, with the United Nations saying in a report last year that the technology is likely needed to keep the rise in global temperatures below catastrophic levels.

SKH expects to capture about 36,500 metric tons of  CO2 per year. It is equivalent of nearly 7750 vehicles for a year