Can artificial carbon fixation similar to natural photosynthesis help alleviate global warming?

Question

Human activity in various forms is blamed for the over-production of greenhouse gases and its consequent global warming. Up till now, nature has been able to balance out some of the greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide, by the process of PHOTOSYNTHESIS, whereby plants and certain micro-organisms absorb the atmospheric carbon dioxide and in the presence of chrorophyll, solar energy and water, convert it to sugar (carbohydrate) and oxygen, all products vital for life on earth. But because we are depleting forests at an alarming rate and at the same time producing carbon dioxide at unprecedented rates, this natural balance has all but gone out of control. Couldn't we therefore take a cue from nature by mimicking photosynthesis through the construction of giant carbon fixation factories in some of the world's deserts and warmer climates in order to reduce the amount of co2 currently being produced.? Is it achievable and feasible to mimick photosynthesis to any degree of efficiency?

Answer 1

No, we're not there.
You raise an interesting question, though. I have some background in this.
It won't alleviate the global warming, at least not directly. Because.......any carbon captured by photosynthesis is released pretty quickly back out into the environment, at least on a geologic timetable. HOWEVER........what you are doing is capturing the energy of sunlight, and that is a much, much more powerful argument for what you are trying to do. If you could make those sugars and then turn that into an energy source in a very direct way, such as to make ethanol, we could at least recycle carbon that's already in the atmosphere rather than pumping carbon out of the ground in the form of petroleum and coal. That alone would reduce carbon emissions significantly.
The technical problem is that plants are already so danged efficient at doing this that no one has found a synthetic way to pull it off that's as good. I've thought about this very problem before. I've never heard of anyone even attempting to do synthetic photosynthesis, and I suppose the reason is that it's hard to imagine doing it more efficiently than plants already do it.

Answer 2

There are already other ideas for carbon sequestration. Like sucking it out of the air and pumping it into the ocean or lime beds to make calcium carbonate or into empty mines.

These ideas are both impractical and expensive. They work on paper but not in practice. The same for your idea.

Besides, global warming is something the planet does, and while we might not be helping, we can't do anything to stop what the planet does. She is much bigger and mightier than we.

Answer 3

global warming is silly, but if I believed in it, your idea here sounds like a decent one to me.