Trap Set

New Carbon Capture System Generates Electricity by Sucking up CO2

The ocean inspired this new carbon capture system.
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Researchers say they've devised a carbon capture system that captures atmospheric carbon in water — and uses the reaction to generate electricity.
Image: CC0/Victor Tangermann

Carbon Capture

When vehicles and power plants burn fossil fuels, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — trapping energy from the Sun and warming the planet.

Some researchers have suggested that the world could fight climate change by investing in machines that capture carbon from the air. A practical solution remains years away, but researchers in South Korea and Georgia now say they’ve devised a system that captures atmospheric carbon in water — and uses the reaction to generate electricity and hydrogen.

Aqueous Solution

The researchers at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and the Georgia Institute of Technology drew inspiration from the ocean, which absorbs a large amount of carbon from the atmosphere.

As water takes on carbon, it becomes more acidic. The researchers built a device that uses that phenomenon to generate electricity, similarly to a battery. The system also produces hydrogen, which the researchers suggest could serve as a fuel.

Sequestration Technologies

The efficiency of the new system isn’t clear, and it currently only works for 1,000 hours. But it’s a rare bit of positivity amidst the many bleak predictions for the future of energy and the environment.

“Carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration technologies have recently received a great deal of attention for providing a pathway in dealing with global climate change,” UNIST researcher Guntae Kim said in a press release. “Our new system has solved this problem with [a] CO2 dissolution mechanism.”

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Jon Christian

Executive Editor

I’m the executive editor at Futurism, assigning, editing, and reporting on everything from artificial intelligence and space exploration to the personalities shaping the tech sector.