Gizmos & Gadgets: Architecture Firm Comes Up with Novel Carbon Sequestration Idea

November 5, 2014 – Plants and the ocean are the two biggest carbon sinks on our planet. And single celled plants are most efficient in absorbing carbon dioxide.

Transportation is the second largest human emitter of carbon dioxide.

So how to come up with a technology that can sequester all that carbon as trucks and cars go about their daily business?

Well a French-Dutch architectural design firm, The Cloud Collective, has and they exhibited it in Geneva, Switzerland at a garden festival this summer. They erected a vertical garden in the form of fencing on a viaduct overlooking a small roadway.

The fence, constructed of hollow transparent tubes, was filled with water and algae. To keep the liquid moving electricity supplied by solar panels ran pumps. In addition the technology contained filters to both clean and harvest the algae as it multiplied.

Classified as a bioreactor, this fence, deemed Culture Urbaine, feeds off carbon emissions produced by passing cars and trucks. Byproducts of the technology include oxygen and biomass. The former can be recirculated into the air. The latter can be continuously harvested to create green energy, produce biodiesel fuels, medications, cosmetics and even foods. Watch the video to see the technology at work.

Related articles across the web

• [priv] Can Sucking CO2 Out of the Atmosphere Really Work?
• Can We Engineer Technology That Can Do What Plants Do?
• Canada starts sequestering most emissions at one coal power plant and other carbon capture and storage projects