A researcher named Michael Trachtenberg, a former neuroscientist and also the founder and CEO of Carbozyme, is thinking about a unique way to get our planet rid of carbon dioxide.
Trachtenberg believes that he can use the same mechanism by which our brain processes carbon dioxide, to remove carbon dioxide from other gas mixtures that are polluting the environment.
Our brain makes use of an enzyme named Carbonic Anhydrase, to process carbon dioxide. Trachtenberg now wants to use the same enzyme to filter out carbon dioxide from various gas mixtures that we keep on dumping in the atmosphere. The enzyme would be used in a scalable liquid membrane permeator to catalyze the conversion of captured carbon dioxide to bicarbonate ions. The bicarbonate ions can then be reused in another capacity or can even be safely disposed.
The membrane-based permeator is based on an extremely reliable gas separation technology that only filters out carbon dioxide. Moreover the membrane also does not use any harmful or toxic chemicals and can be operated at a moderate temperature and pressure. That means the technology does not waste much energy.
Trachtenberg has received a grant of $7.4 million from the Department of Energy. He also wants to conduct some more basic and advanced refinements in the technology so that we can see it in the near future.
Via: Yahoo
