Method removes carbon from air and creates

[The Caspian Hare]

A new method for taking carbon dioxide directly from the air and converting it to oxygen and nanoscale fibers made of carbon could lead to an inexpensive way to make a valuable building material—and may even serve as a weapon against climate change.

Carbon fibers are increasingly being used as a structural material by industries like aerospace and automotive, which value its strength and light weight. The useful attributes of carbon fibers, which also include electrical conductivity, are enhanced at the nanoscale, says Stuart Licht, a professor of chemistry at George Washington University.

The problem is that it’s very expensive to make carbon fibers, much less nanofibers. Licht says his group’s newly demonstrated technology, which both captures the carbon dioxide from the air and employs an electrochemical process to convert it to carbon nanofibers and oxygen, is more efficient and potentially a lot cheaper than existing methods.

But it’s more than just a simpler, less expensive way of making a high value product. It’s also a “means of storing and sequestering carbon dioxide in a useful manner, a stable manner, and in a compact manner,” says Licht.

He points out that if the process is powered by renewable energy, the result is a net removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In a recent demonstration, his group used a unique concentrated solar power system, which makes use of infrared sunlight as well as visible light to generate the large amount of heat needed to run the desired reaction.

http://www.technolog...-stuff-from-it/

[Leonardo]

While the process described is interesting and may indeed lead to a "carbon nanofibre revolution", I am somewhat skeptical of any artificial method which purports to lower the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere. I do not believe that the manufacturing of such a system - it's components both permanent and perishable - along with it's operation provides a net negative output of carbon dioxide.

Most, if not all, of these proposed "carbon-reducing system" seem to me to be an indication that "we" do not wish to acknowledge that the only way to guarantee being able to reduce our carbon dioxide output, is to cut back on those activities which are the worst producers and those activities which prevent or reduce the natural uptake of carbon from the atmosphere (i.e. stop deforestation.)