Published on May 09, 2011   Comments (Be the first)

by Staff Reporter

(iWireNews.com and OfficialWire)

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY (USA)
OfficialWire News Bureau

Technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow human-driven climate change won't be economically feasible for decades, U.S. researchers say.

The report by the American Physical Society analyzed technologies known as "Direct Air Capture," using chemicals to absorb carbon dioxide from the open air, concentrating the carbon dioxide and then storing it safely underground.

The committee, co-chaired by Princeton University engineer Robert Socolow, found such a strategy would be far more expensive than simply preventing the emission of the carbon dioxide in the first place, a Princeton release said Monday.

"We humans should not kid ourselves that we can pour all the carbon dioxide we wish into the atmosphere right now and pull it out later at little cost," Socolow, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, said.

DAC is not likely to become worthwhile until nearly all the significant point sources of carbon dioxide are eliminated, the report said.

"We ought to be developing plans to bring to an end the carbon dioxide emissions at every coal and natural gas power plant on the planet," Socolow said. "We don't have to do this job overnight. But the technologies we studied in this report, capable of removing carbon dioxide from the air, are not a substitute for addressing power plants directly."

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