Carbon Capture Made Easy?

Carbon capture might be one of most important tools we could have to combat climate change. Problem is it's not been fully developed yet. The reason for that is basically the cost. It's perfectly feasible to capture carbon at source (i.e. At the power stations) but it costs a fortune to do it and it reduces the efficiency of power station.

However, hope maybe at hand. Scientists studying sea urchins have discovered that they are very good at absorbing CO2. And they do that using nickel.

When the scientists tried adding nano particles of the metal to a solution of water and CO2 it captured all the CO2. The result can then be easily turned into calcium carbonate (chalk).

If this scales up to an industrial level, it has a number of exciting implications: Nickel is a lot cheaper than other substances currently used for carbon capture, substantially cutting the costs of the process; By turning the CO2 into a useful, stable product like chalk instead of storing the captured gas underground (where it could escape) or in the sea (where it would acidify the water), it's removed permanently; the nickel isn't lost with the chalk, it can easily be retrieved, and used to capture more CO2, further reducing the cost.

This could be the breakthrough carbon capture desperately needs.


Background article.