Carbon capture

With complex ecological modeling, scientists have found that plants may be soaking up 20% more CO2 than earlier predicted. It's no "get-out-of-jail-free card," but it highlights the crucial role nature needs to play as we try to stem global warming.

Researchers have created a paint containing living cyanobacteria that produces oxygen and can capture carbon dioxide. The bacteria’s ability to withstand extreme environments means the paint could even be used in outer space.

CO2 emissions and plastic waste are two major environmental problems, but a Cambridge device may help tackle both at once. The team demonstrated a new version of their solar reactor, which uses sunlight to convert CO2 and plastic into useful chemicals.

Captura Corporation has developed a revolutionary plan to remove carbon emissions by creating an aquatic purification facility in the middle of the sea. The company intends to extract carbon dioxide from ocean water using only renewable electricity.

Mosses are one of the planet's most common – and undervalued – plants. A new study has finally given moss the recognition it deserves, highlighting its importance in maintaining Earth’s ecosystems and its potential for reducing our carbon footprint.

Concrete is one of the largest single sources of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. Engineers at Washington State University have now developed a new method for making concrete that absorbs more carbon than it emits.

Could salt, one of the oldest preservatives around, help keep carbon deep underground for thousands of years? Researchers believe it can, and that it might offer a way forward in containing a gas that's a major contributor to climate change.

With their little flipper-like wings, these seabirds aren’t exactly candidates for being adept at pumping iron. But, in fact, they are: more than a million pounds of iron flows from their poop into the water annually, and it's crucial for ocean life.

The oceans soak up enormous quantities of carbon dioxide, and MIT researchers say they've developed a way of releasing and capturing it that uses far less energy than direct air capture – with some other environmental benefits to boot.

Greenhouse gases and plastic waste are two of the biggest environmental problems the world faces today. A new reactor from Cambridge tackles both at once, converting CO2 and used plastic bottles into useful materials, powered entirely by sunlight.

Denmark is moving forward with Project Greensands, an initiative that will take huge quantities of captured carbon out to an oil rig in the North Sea, and pump it down to sequester it in the sandstone formations that once held oil and gas.

Although there are now a number of systems that capture carbon emissions from smokestacks, many people may still wonder – what is that captured carbon used for? Well, Swiss company On is making shoes out of the stuff.