(ORDO NEWS) — An Israeli company has joined the fight against global warming by looking to the upper atmosphere for inspiration, where it hopes to send a batch of balloons that will capture carbon dioxide for recycling.
Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and industrial agriculture are the main cause of climate change. But it takes too much energy to remove CO2 from the atmosphere at standard temperatures for governments and companies to consider it cost-effective.
High Hopes Labs has developed a system that captures carbon where it almost solidified, far above the Earth.
“The great thing is that it’s very easy to capture the gas when it’s close to freezing…” said CEO Nadav Mansdorf.
“Carbon freezes at minus 80 degrees (Celsius) and the only place we can find carbon close to that is 15 kilometers (9 miles) above our heads.”
The company tested its system on a small scale, Mansdorff said, releasing gas-filled balloons with a box attached underneath that serves as a carbon capture device.
The frozen carbon is then separated from the air, returned to the ground and can be recycled.
The company plans to build larger balloons within two years, each of which can be used to remove a tonne of carbon per day for less than $100, Mansdorff said, much less than similar ground-based plants currently in use.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.