A Dublin-based company, Silicon Kingdom Holdings (SKH) is to begin planting "mechanical trees" in the US. The "trees", developed by researchers at Arizona State University (ASU), will suck CO2 from the air and allow it to be stored or sold and re-used in a variety of applications including enhanced oil recovery, synthetic fuels or in agriculture or food and drink industries.
Forest. Credit: Efired / Shutterstock
Credit: Efired / Shutterstock
SKH intends to build 1,200 metal carbon-cleansing columns, or "trees" within the next year. It is claimed that the technology is several thousand times more efficient at removing the gas from the air than actual trees. What separates the SKH tech from other carbon capture technologies is that it is not necessary to draw air through the system mechanically, allowing the wind to blow air through the system instead. The system makes the technology passive, relatively inexpensive and commercially viable.
If the technology is deployed at scale, it could help to combat global warming through aiding a significant reduction in CO2 levels. Full-scale CO2 farms using the mechanical trees will be capable of removing up to 3.8 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, according to the researchers.
The "trees" are essentially discs of sorbent stacked in columns which, when fully extended, are exposed to the air and capture CO2 in the atmosphere. When full the discs are lowered back down into the column whereby the gas is extracted.
“The situation has gotten to the point where we need to stop talking about it and start doing something about it,” said engineering Professor Klaus Lackner, director of Arizona State University’s Centre for Negative Carbon Emissions (CNCE), and developer of the technology.
“Carbon dioxide is a waste product we produce every time we drive our cars or turn on the lights in our homes. Our device can recycle it, bringing it out of the atmosphere and either bury it or use it as an industrial gas.”
Until now carbon capture technologies have been somewhat limited by the cost of the capture and the ability to harvest the gas on a large scale. The SKH technology has changed this, bringing the capture cost down to below $100 per metric tonne.
"The $100 a tonne is important because I think that's the point where things start to get economically interesting," said Lackner. "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 tonne."
Pól Ó Móráin, CEO of SKH said: “Our goal is to accelerate the global climate effort set out in the Paris Agreement to contribute to reversing global carbon emissions in the next 10 to 15 years. Our passive process is the evolution of carbon capture technology which has the ability to be both economically and technologically viable at scale in a reasonably short time frame.”
SKH holds the exclusive rights to the technology and comprises a group of leading individuals from business and science, including Lackner. Through the relationship with ASU, SKH will support ASU research and ASU owns an interest in the shares of SKH.
Peter Schlosser, vice president and vice provost for Global Futures at ASU said: “The development of Klaus Lackner’s carbon capture device is but one example of how ASU is developing novel technologies and business opportunities to improve the environment and ensure a healthy Earth for all well into the future. We are excited to be working with SKH to bring this important technology for limiting global warming to market.”
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