Removing CO2 From the Air Efficiently

Canadian scientists have created a device that efficiently removes CO2 from the atmosphere. "The proposed air capture system differs from existing carbon capture and storage technology ... while CCS involves installing equipment at, say, a coal-fired power plant to capture CO2 produced during the coal-burning process, ... air capture machines will be able to literally remove the CO2 present in ambient air everywhere. [The team used] ... a custom-built tower to capture CO2 directly from the air while requiring less than 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity per tonne of carbon dioxide."

Comments

Re:Natural device?

[TarrVetus]

This may be Bad Math, but... The article says, "The tower unit was able to capture the equivalent of approximately 20 tonnes per year of CO2 on a single square metre of scrubbing material -- which amounts to the average level of emissions produced by one person each year in North America." A page I dug up claims a single tree removes "on average 50 pounds (22 kg) of carbon dioxide annually over 40 years."

The scrubber sounds pretty effective. No waiting for it to grow, and it's more space-efficient, which is good for cities and industrialized areas.

And what do we do with the CO2?

[scottme]

This extraction of CO2 from the atmosphere is all well and good, but are there any reliable and cost-effective ways to store it or dispose of it?