Carbon harvesting

[Lauxa]

I was watching some molecular biology lectures, and the professor mentioned that most of the mass from trees comes from air. Because trees (and all plants) actually convert carbon dioxide to oxygen + hydrocarbons.

I think it would be really cool if humans could come up with some sort of molecular machine that would convert air into carbon nanotubes, or some sort of high quality building material.

Has anyone ever heard of a project or research like this? Or know what discipline might be most likely to do such research?

[Brutha]

Building carbon nanotubes is really hard because you have to get the structure right at the nano level.
The stuff is really expensive. If I remember right 1gram costs ~10,000$.
It's like mithril in lord of the rings You can do all sorts of cool stuff with it.

Craig Venter does a lot these days at creating artificial life that could be used to produce stuff.

[KaleidoskopicVision]

You mean something analogous to growing buildings? That's a bioengineer's wet dream

There are so many microorganisms which build very sturdy structures, I'm sure if one were to just give them a framework to build within, you'd have some amazing things built up in a few years. There are also many plants and fungi which could serve the same purpose if given a framework and their growth rate was tinkered with a bit using different feeding methods or genetic engineering.

Good thoughts, Lauxa! This is the kind of ingenuity the world needs.

Check this out,



Maybe in the future instead of having to replace the shingles on your roof and clean the gutters, you'll just have to go out and trim the roof

[desertrat]

I believe there is a process to get co2 out of the air , but it is not cheep. Plants and trees do it for free, just water them. This was covered on p.b.s.'s Nova . Once you have the co2 you could seprate the carbon and use it to build nano tubes , again , not cheep. desert rat

[scotthegeek]

I know a big producer of carbon is cement and some company has came up with a new cement that remove carbon from the air based on nature way of building cement like structure like shells and coral.

There is a web sight I forget the name but if we look to nature it has all the solution we need.

Scott

[Lauxa]

Thank you scott, I found the company:

Novacem

I'll be reading about this some more, it is very interesting.

[scotthegeek]

Thanks for the link Lauxa

Here is the sight I was thinking of Ask Nature - the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature, industrial design - Ask Nature - the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature, industrial

I found that site and many other by watching TED video. TED: Ideas worth spreading

Scott

[ThoughtAddict]

Another potential solution is to use bacteria to convert the CO2 to CaCO3 (which, incidentally, could be used to counteract the effects of acidic rain). See Naturally occurring bacteria converts CO2 into calcium carbonate and Bacteria: The low-tech fix for high-tech carbon capture? | Energy.

[scotthegeek]

there are so many exciting things that people are coming with in the labs all over the world and there is a shift in thinking instead of seeing pollution as a problem but as a natural resource. They could use bataria to eat sewage and make hydrogen instead of dumping into are drinking water how backward is that. I know at the time hundred years ago it was a major break through it was better the dumping it in the streets.

The problem is the cost of changing all the infrastructure. There are so many ideas which one do you go with and who to say if you wait something new better cheaper wont come along. Its not how good an idea is if it cost more it dose not usually get done.

Scott