- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
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So they take CO2 from the atmosphere and chemically transform it into solid materials that reduce greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere?
Congratulations you have invented plants.
I think microbes are probably a lot easier, faster, and more cost effective to produce compared to plants. It can survive in harsh conditions and create rock from the C02 at a fast rate according to the article.
Weeks instead of years. Could be big for assisting in the fight against climate change.
The downside of that kind of stuff is that you need a balance. Scrub too much CO2 and it’s trouble again.
Great, in 50 years we’ll be desperately switching back to fossil fuels to prevent an ice age.
Plants eventually decompose, releasing the CO2. Rock generally doesn’t have that problem
Plants eventually decompose
On the scale of hundreds of years, thousands for some trees, tens of thousands plus if you sink fast growing trees deep in a cold sea. It is a thoroughly proven technology. If deployed at scale likely good enough to get us over the the hump to a renewables based technology without frying the Earth.
The problem is it’s not actually profitable (pretty cheap though) like the tech in OP’s article with patents and income streams (but only for fossil fuel energy generation). You’d think survival would be adequate motivation, but no.
More power to the people making this tech, everything is welcome, but if they’re going to lock it behind patents for 20 years it’s unlikely to be what is needed now.
The plants then die and release that CO2
Turning it into a mineral means it won’t just be released
“that essentially eat carbon dioxide gas (CO2) and turn it into rock at an incredibly fast rate.”
ETA to new construction method in 3-2-1…
“Twenty years from now…”
I have a feeling “incredibly fast” is a relative term, and not a sign of this being used for construction. If they could convert it quickly enough to use for construction, wouldn’t it essentially kill off its own habitat in no time flat?
Bacteria grow on ants and fix atmospheric carbon to make a tough armor.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700952v1.full
That’s really cool
I agree, but does that really inform proper carbon sequestration to combat climate change? It feels a bit like a stretch to make such a connection so early in a discovery/analysis.
I wonder if it could be feasible to take the CO2 emissions from incinerated landfill.
Empty the landfills, burn the waste, generate electricity and eat all the carbon emissions. No idea if it’s feasible in the future but it sure would be an incredible advancement.
