Klaus Lackner began thinking about technology to make air safer to breathe almost three decades ago. Now startup businesses and other commercial enterprises are pursuing ventures based on carbon-capture systems similar to those Lackner has been developing in the ASU Center for Negative Carbon Emissions. The Fulton Schools professor’s atmosphere-cleansing techniques are about to be deployed through a new partnership between ASU and an Ireland-based company. Using a passive energy- and cost-saving approach, the technology relies on wind to pull air into a carbon-storage system. Lackner’s systems and others have been shown to work, but the challenge now is scaling up operations enough to make a significant difference on a global scale.

See Also: University researchers behind new push for “mechanical trees” to help capture CO2, ABC Channel 7 News (Denver), July 11

Direct action: Carbon capture gears up for climate battle, The Engineer, June 12