Saturday, January 12, 2008

Cutting CO2 With Algae

Engineers at Ohio University have discovered a way to use algae - simple, plant-like organizims - to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants and industrial production. Rather than going into the atmosphere and causing global warming, CO2 emmissions could be channeled into a bioreactor made up of algae grown on verticle screens. The algae dissolve the CO2 into the surrounding water and emit only oxygen and nitrogen. The algae can then be harvested to be used as animal feeds and biofuel. The first such facility of 1.25 million square meters of algae screens could be up and running by 2010. This shows that we have the human know-how to stop climate change - we only need a government willing to lead the way.