Climate caretry or environmental risk? The future of CO2 removal in the USA

Climate caretry or environmental risk? The future of CO2 removal in the USA

A groundbreaking experiment for CO2 removal has its origin in a small study in the USA! In 1997, eleven -year -old Claire Lackner had the brilliant idea of filtering carbon dioxide from the air, inspired by her father Klaus Lackner, a physicist who worked on the future of energy. With an aquarium pump and a simple chemical solution, she managed to remove 10 percent of the CO2 from the air overnight - an experiment that laid the foundation for the technology of direct air separation (DAC). This method could be crucial to combat global warming and achieve the climate goals.

The technology that Lackner and his team developed in 2007 uses special materials to extract CO2 from the ambient air. This innovation could be the answer to the increasing greenhouse gas emissions, which have been constantly increasing since the 2000s. Scientists warn that it is not enough to reduce CO2 emissions; We also have to actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The United States has set ambitious goals: from 2050, over one billion tons of CO2 are to be removed from the air annually. But to achieve this, DAC has to become one of the largest industries worldwide and develop rapidly.

The challenges of CO2 removal

Despite the promising technology, DAC systems face enormous challenges. The cost of CO2 removal is currently high-about $ 1,000 per ton. In order to make this technology economically viable, massive investments and scaling the production capacities are necessary. The US government has already invested billions in the development of DAC systems, but the question remains: Will this technology actually help to clean the air, or will it only serve as a pretext for the continuation of fossil fuel funding?

In Louisiana, a large DAC project, Project Cypress, is currently being developed to remove CO2 from the air and save underground. However, the local population has concerns that this could lead to further stress due to industrial emissions. Critics warn that DAC is not the solution to the climate problem, but may temporarily tempt companies not to reduce their emissions sufficiently. The future of DAC technology remains uncertain, while the world moves towards a dangerous course for global warming.