Columbia University and R&D firm Global Research Technologies (GRT) have inked a worldwide research collaboration and cross-licensing agreement for technology that extracts and captures carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Today, only living plants, atmospheric chemical cycles, and other natural systems can pull large volumes of CO2 out of the air. Efforts to snare manmade CO2 — released primarily from the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline — from the air are not yet viable at scale but hold great promise. Columbia’s air capture technology, called a “synthetic tree,” uses proprietary resins and processes to absorb CO2 from the air, potentially at a rate 1,000 times faster than natural trees. The synthetic trees, which have a predicted lifespan of 15 years, consume minimal energy during the carbon capture process and share similar energy requirements for sorbent regeneration with other carbon capture technologies.
Klaus Lackner, PhD, professor of geophysics and director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia’s Earth Institute, and Allen Wright, senior staff associate at the Earth Institute, cofounded GRT, which has offices in Waukesha, WI, and New York City, to advance basic research and accelerate development of air capture technologies. Initial units, due within two years, will be able to capture up one ton of CO2 per day at a cost of less than $100 per ton of air-captured CO2, according to GRT CEO William Gridley. GRT plans to sell the diluted captured gas as a nutrient for greenhouses and algae farms and eventually to sell compressed gas for drink carbonation, dry ice formulation, and other niche markets that today total $1 billion to $2 billion per year. “One of the unique advantages of this technology is that it makes possible the capture of CO2 from the air anywhere in the world,” explains James Aloise, who manages IP related to green technology for Columbia Technology Ventures, Columbia’s TTO. “Unlike the few existing carbon capture approaches, it’s not necessary to co-locate these units with sources of CO2 emissions. This inherent flexibility and mobility improves access to the technology, which has true potential to make a global impact.”
Source: News Blaze
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