It has long been the holy grail for those who believe that technology can save us from catastrophic climate change: a device that can "suck" carbon dioxide from the air, reducing the warming effect of the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas produced each year.A group of U.S. scientists said they have made a breakthrough towards creating such a machine. Led by Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University in New York, they plan to build and demonstrate a prototype within two years that could economically capture a tonne of carbon dioxide a day from the air, about the same per passenger as a flight from London to New York.The prototype "scrubber" would be small enough to fit inside a shipping container. Mr. Lackner estimates it will initially cost around £100,000 to build, but the carbon cost of making each device would be "small potatoes" compared with the amount each would capture, he said.The scientists stressed their invention is not a magic bullet to solve climate change. It would take millions of the devices to soak up the world's carbon emissions, and the carbon dioxide trapped would still need to be disposed of. But the team says the technology May be the best way to avert dangerous temperature rises, as fossil fuel use is predicted to increase sharply in coming decades despite international efforts. Climate experts at a monitoring station in Hawaii this month reported carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have reached a record 387 parts per million (ppm) — 40 per cent higher than before the industrial revolution.
The Hindu, June 1, 2008
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