Scientists develop tree that can remove 1 ton of CO2 per day.

[Deleted]

more efficient than natural trees at removing CO₂ from our atmosphere.

Ehm? Don't trees actually PRODUCE CO₂?

[arcticsnow]

And then all the real trees will die due to lack of Co2 in the atmosphere and everyone will get high n die from oxygen poisoning

can see it totally happening

Problem is, we are producing so much C02 that we are turning our oceans acidic, if nothing is done, the idea of global warming and the floods it will cause will seem like a cake walk compared to the nightmare of an acidic ocean. Things are already dying our oceans at an alarming rate. Most of the world's C02 is not ate up by trees, but by the oceans.

---------- Post added 2013-01-19 at 02:47 PM ----------

Ehm? Don't trees actually PRODUCE CO₂?

No, they "breath" it. They produce Oxygen and is what is necessary for us to live. Its what we breath into our bodies. We produce Co2 by breathing it out.

[Deleted]

Ehm? Don't trees actually PRODUCE CO₂?

no they absorb it along with water and the photosyntetis reaction create and expel Oxygen and create glucose for growth as far as I can remember

---------- Post added 2013-01-19 at 06:53 PM ----------

I had another look because I remembered something like that, can't find precise information but seems that most plants go into reverse process during the night and expel CO2. The overall result between day/night though should always be CO2 absorbed/day > CO2 expelled/Night

I can't find reliable sources, so if one can point me to the right one that prove or disprove this I will be mighty grateful

[haxartus]

100 million trees, $20 000 each, that's about $2 trillion to fix the problem forever. Seems rather low.

[Warpaladin]

100 million trees, $20 000 each, that's about $2 trillion to fix the problem forever. Seems rather low.

It does seem rather low, the money doesn't even need to be spent all by one country. For example if the the top 10 CO₂ producing countries were the only to buy they would be spending like $200 billion. The more countries that participate the better.

[skrump]

Love the fact that it can potentially used to harness co2 as fuel however considering that is the case I am sure were soon to be told that breathing air produced by the tree also causes cancer or some other major health risk, simply because the oil industry refuses to be outdone.

[wookybear]

Was going to comment, but I reside in England, therefore the BBC locks me out of this article.

[Noomz]

So in environmental news today, scientists have developed an artificial tree that is 1000 times more efficient than natural trees at removing CO₂ from our atmosphere.

The cost is quite high at $20,000/apiece but I imagine environmentalists would think the price worth it. In addition, since carbon dioxide produced in Beijing can be removed in Chile, it doesn't matter what countries decide to purchase these trees to help our atmosphere.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2012...an-the-skies/2

I want one of these tree's!

[Warpaladin]

Was going to comment, but I reside in England, therefore the BBC locks me out of this article.

Fake plastic trees

Klaus Lackner, director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University, has come up with a technique that he thinks could solve the problem. Lackner has designed an artificial tree that passively soaks up carbon dioxide from the air using “leaves” that are 1,000 times more efficient than true leaves that use photosynthesis.

"We don't need to expose the leaves to sunlight for photosynthesis like a real tree does," Lackner explains. "So our leaves can be much more closely spaced and overlapped – even configured in a honeycomb formation to make them more efficient."

The leaves look like sheets of papery plastic and are coated in a resin that contains sodium carbonate, which pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and stores it as a bicarbonate (baking soda) on the leaf. To remove the carbon dioxide, the leaves are rinsed in water vapour and can dry naturally in the wind, soaking up more carbon dioxide.

Lackner calculates that his tree can remove one tonne of carbon dioxide a day. Ten million of these trees could remove 3.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – equivalent to about 10% of our global annual carbon dioxide emissions. "Our total emissions could be removed with 100 million trees," he says, "whereas we would need 1,000 times that in real trees to have the same effect."

If the trees were mass produced they would each initially cost around $20,000 (then falling as production takes over), just below the price of the average family car in the United States, he says, pointing out that 70 million cars are produced each year. And each would fit on a truck to be positioned at sites around the world. "The great thing about the atmosphere is it's a good mixer, so carbon dioxide produced in an American city can be removed in Oman," he says.

Here is a good part of the article

[Yunru]

Well those could work for mars too create the air while using carbon as a fuel material or something like that.

[cubby]

Well those could work for mars too create the air while using carbon as a fuel material or something like that.

That atmosphere has far more issues to deal with than just too much CO2. But they, so something like it, could help when we get around to eventually terraforming it.

[haxartus]

Actually CO2 is good for Mars (and Earth to an extent) since it heats up the planet.

[Deleted]

Actually CO2 is good for Mars (and Earth to an extent) since it heats up the planet.

yes the temperature on mars is also my main concern.

[MMKing]

Assuming 20 000 per tree, 2008 figures from Wikipedia of 29,888,121 thousand = 29 888 121 000 tonnes of CO2.

= 29 888 121 000 / 365 = 81 885 263 ( Eighty-one million eight hundred thousand, eighty five thousand two hundred and sixty three) is the total amount of tonnes CO2 released into the air each and every day according to Wikipedia.

Assuming 1 tree = 1 ton of CO2 we need 81 885 263 trees = 81 885 263 * 20 000 = 1 637 705 260 000 Dollars ( 1 trillion, 637 billion, 705 million, 260 thousand, 000)

By comparison, world GDP is sitting at around 70 trillion, give or take a few hundred billion depending on source. (I would imagine it is really hard to calculate)

1 637 705 260 000 Dollars / 7 Trillion (world pop) = 234 USD per world citizen, if you where to completely zero out CO2 production.

The total number for 2013 will be somewhat off, considering these are 2008 figues. If we where to produce 81.8 million of these trees, it is doubtful that the cost would be anywhere near as high as 20 000 after the first million trees. The product would be the most demanded product on the planet by far, thus any reduction in production cost would benefit any business or individual to become instantly rich.

[Warpaladin]

7 Trillion (world pop)

I think that is a typo :P

[MMKing]

I think that is a typo :P

WHo keeps count ?