The MechanicalTree — made possible by years of research and development led by Fulton Schools Professor Klaus Lackner and his team of engineers and scientists in ASU’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions — is the primary technology being developed as the centerpiece of the carbon farms that the entrepreneurial Carbon Collect venture wants to place next to manufacturing and industrial plants to consume the carbon emissions coming from these operations. The plan is to mass produce the trees to enable extraction of hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The goal is to help clean the air of harmful pollutants and instead use the captured carbon to feed micro algae that can be used to produce fuels and other valuable products.