this machine can suck carbon out of the air - the air purifier

David Keith was a little fidgety.
Maybe that's because the venture capitalist asked to see his carbon dioxide machine.
Perhaps because, as experiments often do, the project is a few months behind schedule.
Perhaps because his critics say it will never succeed.
Or maybe it's a taste of excitement as it seems entirely possible for the trailertruck-
The machine he relies on is actually going to work.
"It's amazing to see all the speeches and papers turned into hardware," he said . ".
"I really like it.
"Keith is on the campus of the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he has been a professor until recently.
Now his academic hat is Harvard, where he is both a professor of public policy and a professor of applied physics.
His hat is a bit hard-
The up company in Calgary campus is called Carbon Engineering ".
The company is building a machine that can absorb carbon dioxide from the air.
The core technology of the equipment is not new.
"People have been doing it for a long time," he said . ".
"In fact, in the 1950 s, there was a business process that took carbon dioxide out of the air, so it was not mysterious that we could do that.
"But these companies are only extracting a small amount of carbon dioxide for industrial purposes.
Keith is thinking of a more important question that is common to anyone trying to develop technology: can it be done on a large scale in a cost-effective way?
"So our interest is to build the whole.
Tens of thousands of tons of scale commercial systems are needed-or more —
Carbon dioxide in the air, "he said.
"Dealing with climate change is not as difficult as you think, and it's Keith's personal thing to a certain extent.
The strong man has slipped hundreds of miles in the rapidly melting Arctic area, so he knows more about what is dangerous than most.
Making this project work is also an intellectual challenge.
"It's interesting that people don't think much about a matter of broad public consensus in one direction," he said . ".
"On this topic, I would like to say that many of my colleagues from energy technology experts say that removing carbon dioxide from the air is a joke, costing thousands of dollars per ton of carbon.
"When we began to study it seriously, we began to be convinced that it was indeed wrong.
It is not that others are fools, but that others do not do the works.
When you do the project, it turns out that it's not as difficult as you think.
"When he watched the machine take shape, he pointed out that all its parts had been tested --and-
The real technology is only regrouped in a new way for a new result. If scaled-
The version of this device can work, and capturing carbon from the air can mitigate one of the biggest challenges of climate change.
"This provides a way to manage transportation emissions," he said . "
"High traffic demand --
Energy Fuels like hydrocarbons.
It is very difficult to replace these batteries with batteries. in some cases, such as airplanes, you just can't.
"Keith's talent as an energy analyst and engineer is that he thinks about problems in an unconventional way.
So, on the one hand, Keith faces doubts from his friends in academia.
But some very smart people think he's right.
Bill Gates is looking for advice on energy and climate.
Gates and a Canadian billionaire gave him $6 million to test his ideas.
"It is only by forming a company that it is possible to answer the actual cost question of doing so," he said . ".
Put the carbon captured in 600-
The Volt power cord is on and the machine shows its first sign of life.
When they power a key part, the fan sucks in the air through the device.
These fans will go through 31-foot-
Long chamber filled with wavy plastic material.
Water added with sodium hydroxide will run out of plastic and react with carbon dioxide to drain it out of the air.
After this part of the machine runs reliably, Keith plans to test a variety of chemical systems to complete the process
That is to say, recycle the chemicals that capture carbon dioxide and produce a pure stream of carbon dioxide gas, and then bury it underground.
Keith sees niche apps that actually make money for this small company.
One idea is to pump pure carbon dioxide underground and push the oil up.
He said the oil would qualify as low
Carbon fuel because producing it actually absorbs carbon dioxide from the air.
"We think we can make hydrocarbon fuels with much lower life --
"Carbon emissions are recycled compared to conventional gasoline," he said . ".
"I think it's really important for the environment, and it can be profitable under emerging low-margin standards.
Low carbon fuels like Californiacarbon-fuel standard.
"The next day, there were more options to appear on the stage, and two people in suits emerged from Chrysalix, one of the largest venture capital companies focused on clean energy.
Keith showed them his equipment.
They asked a lot of questions, and finally Mike Walkinshaw, chief financial officer of Chrysalix, praised location head.
"We think there are great business opportunities to solve global warming in the world," Walkinshaw said . ".
"We believe that the question will become more obvious in the next few years and the world will look for answers.
They are willing to pay for it.
Walkinshaw feels comfortable standing in all the curved metals and pipes of the equipment.
"We like prototypes," he said . "
"This is an excellent job that Professor Keith has done here.
"This is not the only small company to explore the capture of carbon dioxide by air.
Because the current costs are so high, expanding costs to influence the global climate is at best a distant dream.
He agrees with his critics at this point.
But Keith said that unless there are people in the lead who are pushing, the cost will never fall and the technology will never progress.
"It took me 20 years to try and figure out how to help with the climate problem," he said . ".
"I have studied a lot of different technologies.
I don't believe who the silver bullet is.
But I do think that we need to have more potential solutions to climate problems, none of which is perfect, none of which we understand very well, but we will do better if we have more choices.
"A few weeks later, Keith reported that the machine was up and running.
He said some critics believe that the technical problems that could be the exhibitors have not been realized.
The challenge now is to squeeze as much Test time as possible before the winter weather in Calgary arrives and close the test time this season.