Are scientists working on "air scrubbers" to absorb CO2 and smog from the atmosphere?

Question

I live in LA and can't help but wish there were scrubbers or devices that would be effective at absorbing or siphoning out smog from the atmosphere...also, if there were devices to absorb excess CO2, that would be amazing at helping curb global warming. Are scientists working on any feasible solutions?

Answer 1

omg. CO2 is absorbed without limit by the oceans. It is instantly taken up and thrown into a buffered state. The colder the faster it is taken up. 85% of the Earth is covered by water. The water is 'working' 24/7 to clear all the excess CO2. It is used by all plants, but only during times when they are growing. The CO2 sink of the oceans is unlimited.
The more CO2 there is the faster the plants will grow. Primarily in the oceans but also to a much lesser extent on land(because there is less land to have plants on compared to oceans).
There is nothing man can do to increase the CO2 sink. Much like spitting in the ocean will have no effect on the level of the oceans.

Answer 2

Yes they are. The techology is similar to that used in smokestacks to remove greenhouse gases and other pollutants before the exhasut is released into the air.

One of the frontrunners is a scheme devised by Professor Klaus Lackner, this uses a large carbon scrubber nicknamed an 'artificial tree'.

This and similar schemes use a chemical (soduim hydroxide) to react with CO2 in the atmosphere. The resulting solution is then put through other chemical processes and the sodium hydroxide recovered for reuse, the remaining product is synthetic gasoline or diesel that vehicles could run on.

Each one of Lackner's artificial trees would be capable of removing 90,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year, that's the same amount that 18,000 people produce.

This is just one of several schemes that scientists are working on. Some are extremely ambitious, some potentially dangerous, others are extremely simple and mimic nature.

Here's a couple of scientific white papers with lots more details...
http://www.centre-cired.fr/perso/haduong/files/Keith.ea-2005-ClimateStrategyWithCO2CaptureFromTheAir.pdf
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/carbon_seq/7b1.pdf

Answer 3

Yes and No, Sir Richard Branson and Al Gore began the Virgin Earth Challenge which would reward 25 million dollars to the best invention on how to clean the air of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, however I don't really know how informed the participants are and the chances of them making a breakthrough...

Answer 4

Smog scrubbers have been in use since the early 1970's. There is research now being conducted to trap CO2 underground.

Answer 5

There's been some research. the problem, of course, is tha tit would have to be done on a global scale to do any good. And the cost of doing that would be astronomical-and it would still take decades.

What's most likely to happen is tha twe'll start to shift more and more to alternative energy that doesn't use oil or coal at all. Then, over time, natural processes will remove the excess that's built up.

Answer 6

I saw some kind of tv special about a scientist inventing C02 collectors, but the problem with his solution was the cost (as usual!) and the number of collectors, plus they would have to be put up all over a city just to clean that one area. Sorry I don't have a reference to the program . . .

Answer 7

Actually, there is a form of carbon scrubbers in development. BUT, we shouldn't rely on this technology to solve our problems, we still need to reduce, reuse, recycle, conserve, and convert to ensure that Global Warming doesn't get so far out of hand that there's nothing we can do to slow it back down to its natural cycle. To find out how and to evaluate your carbon footprint go to think.mtv.com and climatecrisis.org

Answer 8

I believe in technology to answer the CO2 problem, however until that happens, plant a tree, reduce deforestation, and pray we have not gone too far. A tree and other plants are very efficient at reducing CO2 and donating oxygen for us.

Answer 9

Well this is a bit of non sense since the source of pollution (except for mobile ones) is concentrated and pollutants there are extremely much less inexpensive to scrub than dilluted from the atmosphere. It´s just not cost efficient and will probably never be !

Answer 10

Yes in a way, there are companies out there continually doing R&D on creating hybrid and genetically modified trees that will grow to maturity faster and produce more oxygen also they are supposed to eventually provide cheaper lumber than logging natural forrests.