4 ms·
How do you get the CO2 out of the air, other than the obvious "grow corn"?
by genewitch 5y ago
How do you get the CO2 out of the air, other than the obvious "grow corn"?
- ncmncm 5y agoSeriously? Adsorb it. You have to move a lot of air through your system, but that just costs energy. With solar cost still in free fall, it will soon be cheaper to get CO2 out of the air, add hydrogen extracted from water, and deliver CH4 or larger molecules, than to get them out of the ground.
- genewitch 5y agois adsorbing something i can do at home or does it require something on the scale of a refinery?
- thereisnospork 5y agoTo do so practically requires scale, but a science fair-worthy demo can probably be done at home, perhaps using distilled water as the sorbent.
- toomanybeersies 5y agoThere's a few options out there, the most common method is solvent absorption [1]. There's also a YC backed startup, Prometheus Fuels, that's trying to commercialise a process using carbon nanotube membranes for CO2 separation [2]. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20130508220516/http://www.uk-shec.org.uk/uk-shec/news/IEEE_Paper_6_3_5_finalx1x.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20130508220516/http://www.uk-she... [2] https://prometheusfuels.com/ https://prometheusfuels.com/
- thereisnospork 5y agoUsing a sorbent, to absorb the CO2 in preference to N2/O2/Ar (etc.). The 'sorbed CO2 is then de-sorbed in a closed container (for compression, storage, etc.). Selexol is a common commercial solvent for CO2 removal, though for atmospheric removal other tech may be preferable.