So how does it work on methane? I know a few people and a dog that I'd like to hook that up to.

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

@Kaiser-Machead:
@Kaiser-Machead: I cant Hotlink but I think this is what your imagining: [farm3.static.flickr.com]

AtomicSpud

The issue is... what do you do with the co2?

shockwaver

saw these guys on discovery the other day...pretty great invention!

jgeezy

Superintelligent race of trees catches word of this potential threat, and releases their army of triffids to exterminate us.

Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E

@fosho4:
I also like how much energy was wasted transporting that thing all over the place while building it when they could have possibly planned it out a little better.

The dumbest thing in that episode would've had to have been the dry ice torpedoes, though.

bignaz2k

Discovery did a whole episode on this on their Project Earth series.

You can watch it online on Discovery's site.

The whole series is actually pretty good.

fosho4

@shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog: So that's what "hebetudinous" means!

GadgetPlay

Thank goodness that CO2 is a natural substance that we exhale and trees eat and that has no known effect on warming our currently cooling planet. I'd hate to have to depend on this gizmo to "save the planet," even if it were necessary.

GadgetPlay

"...CO2 that can be piped away"

where does the pipe go?

se5k

@GadgetPlay: Yes, because we all know that any naturally occurring element has no adverse effects when introduced in an unnatural proportion into the environment. I know that when I breathe pure O2, I feel the exact same as I do sitting here now, after all, it's a naturally occurring element that I breathe all day, every day.

FueledbyCopenhagen

@se5k: A Pepsi Factory?

Captian_Caveman

can this CO2 be canned into a coke?

ddtx2

@shockwaver:

You pump it down into the same rock stratta that hold things like natural gas.

My big concern with this is that you're taking oxygen out of the air at the same time you're pulling out the carbon. When a plant "breathes" carbon dioxide, it releases the O2 back into the air. This method traps both far underground.

Gregpooh

yea trees are way too last century, we need a technology to do what nature does by itself.

Next out nanobot fiber bits to scrub your colon. Taste great on cereal and yogurt. How exciting!

djrogi

Considering no conclusive evidence exists that CO2 is the cause of global warming (which has now begun to reverse), science is sure investing a lot of time and money to solve this "problem".

[spagreport.wordpress.com]

closhedbb

... because planting trees is for wussies?

Monty

take the waste CO2 and pipe it into something vital to the survival of our species: beer.

hypereric

@GadgetPlay:
here in mpls, it's 50 degrees this morning. i'd say the trees are doing the job just fine. so much so i may just take a couple of them down in my front yard.

@FueledbyCopenhagen
i like my O2 cut with a yummy pall mall.

godwhacker

They could sure use some of these just north of Calgary at the oilsands.
And ask Craig Venter what he could do with large amounts of CO2 stored and able to be piped in large quantities to where ever.
[www.treehugger.com]

JymmyZ

@hypereric: Son, I believe it's that time where we have a little talk about where beer comes from...

ripfire

"The cheapest way to keep CO2 emissions out of the air is still not generating it in the first place." Spoken like a true koolaid drinker.

That is completely false. Only because if we ceased using anything that produced CO2 we would loose all of our manufacturing, transportation, etc. which would cost us much much more in lost revenue.

Plus, you try to get Al Gore to stop flying his jets.

venomous_duck41

Great for the lincoln tunnel or any long tunnel ?

PDSM

can this device be scaled down though? would be pretty sweet to have one on your exhaust and unload the carbon when you fill up your car :D

Gonzie

The feedstock: Adorable puppies.

txpunk

@FueledbyCopenhagen: Right!

GadgetPlay

Use the CO2 for paint ball guns ... because then we can release the CO2 back into its natural environment and still have fun ... seriously, there is no man made global warming, and CO2 is not an issue, this scrubber they built is superfluous.

king_of_fools

The only way devices like this will become useful is if cheap, clean energy is readily available. Shouldn't they be working on that problem first?

wezelboy

@fosho4:

That series is the WORST show on tv. Over-Dramatic, Over-Acted, Over-BORING. I'd rather watch the new paris hilton show.

Also, this C02 scubber is BULLSHIT in a practical sense. Not only does a unit this size only cover 1 families footprint, it contains thousands of dollars of stainless steel mesh which *SURPRISE* is causes toxic and C02 emissions when produced.

Yea... lets up the production of expensive 314L stainless and release more C02 to save on releasing C02! YAY

este

@GadgetPlay: Exactly!

shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog

@venomous_duck41:

Eh, what can you do? Hippies LOVE koolaid.

este

@Monty:

Planting an excess amount of tress can destroy an ecosystem. Planting trees retort is for hippies who have no clue how things work.

este

@Captian_Caveman:

Underground where is will just come right back up again.

este

@este: I was going to respond that we should just be killing humans to fix the problem, but I didn't want to have to be the first volunteer.

Monty

@Monty:

No man, I'm ALL FOR regulating people :)

este

If there'so much CO2 around why not capture it, compress it (using green methods of course) and use it to power cars with....
Easy to fill up, non flamable, etc....

Brilliant idea!
:)

aec007

This was on discovery a few weeks ago, the entire experiment was done in a very poor way. They hooked this thing up to a gasoline generator and the only thing they used to determine the total carbon footprint of this thing is how much gasoline they burned. They never took into account all the carbon the manufacturing of this device took, not to mention the transportation of the chemicals they use to the sites and all the other thousands of sources of CO2 This pseudo-science runs right up there with Ethanol production and how it will free us from oil dependency, of course not taking into account that all the corn grown to make the ethanol is fertilized using petroleum based fertilizers.

ReubenBibulus

bury it under the ocean floor. no joke, the first part of the show was about an experiment that tried to determine whether this was feasible. they dropped a small scale "dry-ice torpedo" to the bottom of the ocean. after a certain depth, pressure prevents the dry ice from changing to gas.

MelindaCordus

@closhedbb: I think the 900 degree temperatures on Venus, with its predominantly CO2 atmosphere, might suggest otherwise.

Barion

@GadgetPlay: So you're suggesting that carbon dioxide is, in fact, NOT a greenhouse gas.

Ever hear of this planet called Venus?

Barion