New Atlas

Environment Audio available

Climeworks: The ambitious startup out to reverse climate change by capturing carbon from the air

Nick Lavars October 12, 2018

Climeworks is a Swiss company at the vanguard of carbon capture technology, and having just completed a year-long pilot project collecting C02 at the world’s first negative emissions power plant, is rather optimistic about the way things are headed.

Climeworks recently carried out a carbon capture pilot project at the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant in ...

Aircraft Audio available

"Recycled-carbon" jet fuel gets its first commercial use

Ben Coxworth October 4, 2018

It was back in 2011 that we first heard how Virgin Atlantic Airways was planning to use an eco-friendly aviation fuel made from captured steel mill waste gases. A successful test flight followed in 2016, and the fuel has now been utilized in a commercial flight for the first time.

The fuel was used in a 747 flying from Florida to London

Environment

World's first "negative emission" power plant turns CO2 into stone

Rich Haridy October 15, 2017

After opening the world’s first commercial Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant designed to pull CO2 out of the air, Swiss company Climeworks is now joining forces with a geothermal power plant in Iceland to create the world’s first “negative emission” power plant.

This geothermal power plant in Iceland has become the world's first negative emission power plant

Environment

Rooftop CO2 capture system pipes greenhouse emissions to a greenhouse

Michael Irving June 1, 2017

To reduce the severity of climate change, it’s not enough to just curb the rise in emissions –technologies that actively pull more CO2 out of the atmosphere will also be vital. To that end, a new CO2-filtering plant has just opened up near Zurich.

Climeworks has opened its first Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant, which captures CO2 from a waste ...

Science

Tweaked titanium turns CO2 into solar fuel

Nick Lavars April 26, 2017

Dcientists at the University of Central Florida have come up with synthetic material that draws on visible light from the sun to produce solar fuels, sucking harmful CO2 out of the air in the process.

If the approach can be replicated on a large scale, it would be a game-changer

Environment

Crystals of CO2 drawn from the air

Ben Coxworth January 9, 2017

Carbon capture technology typically takes the form of sponge-like materials that are used to trap excess CO2 at the places it is released. Now, scientists have created a means of drawing it right out of the ambient air – and the technology involves using a liquid to turn the CO2 gas into crystals.

Researchers Radu Custelcean (top) and Charles Seipp study crystals that had absorbed carbon dioxide from ambient ...

Environment

Graphene quantum dots can convert CO2 into liquid fuels

Michael Irving December 18, 2016

The wonder-material graphene may have a new trick to add to its resume: converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuels. A team at Rice University has used nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots to create ethylene and ethanol, with stability and efficiency close to that of electrocatalysts like copper.

Rice University researchers have used nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots to convert carbon dioxide into liquid hydrocarbons ...

Environment

Bubble-like "Memzyme" increases speed and efficiency of carbon capture

Michael Irving September 4, 2016

Capturing carbon emissions at the source is an important weapon in the fight against climate change. Now scientists have developed an efficient low-cost technique that makes use of an ultra-thin membrane, like a bubble, to filter CO2 out of flue gas.

Scientists have developed a thin, bubble-like membrane which could help filter CO2 out of flue gas

Environment

Quickfire carbon capture method turns CO2 into solid rock within two years

Nick Lavars June 9, 2016

A new method of carbon sequestration could seriously fast-track the process. Injecting carbon dioxide into volcanic rocks was found to turn the gas into a solid within two years, which is a much shorter timeframe than the centuries or millennia that the current consensus suggests.

Could a new method of carbon sequestration hold the key to battling climate change?

Environment

Today's CO2 may become tomorrow's concrete

Antonio Pasolini April 11, 2016

A UCLA team has developed a technology to turn sequestered carbon dioxide into concrete. The researchers would like to see their technology applied in power stations, which are massive sources of emissions.

J.R. DeShazo (left) and Gaurav Sant show off a sample of the new building material they ...