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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Scientists think artificial lung technology could remove carbon dioxide from smokestacks

"The amazingly efficient lungs of birds and the swim bladders of fish have become the inspiration for a new filtering system to remove carbon dioxide from electric-power station smokestacks before the main greenhouse gas can billow into the atmosphere and contribute to global climate change," Newswise reports from the meeting of the American Chemical Society in Indianapolis. The technology is a long way from scaling up, but it shows how research continues to find possible ways of keeping coal-fired power plants going in the coming era of limits on carbon dioxide.

Aaron P. Esser-Kahn of the University of California, Irvine, told audience members that "he envisions new CO2-capture units with arrays of tubes made from porous membranes fitted side-by-side, much like blood vessels in a natural lung. Once fabricated to be highly efficient and scalable to various sizes by repeating units, these units can then be 'plugged' into power plants and vehicles, not unlike catalytic converters, he explained," Newswise reports. Esser-Kahn said, “The goal is to cram as much surface area into the smallest space possible.” (Read more)

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