Tag Archives: carbon capture technology

This 3D printed wind turbine design uses solar arrays for 24/7 green energy

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The global climate crisis is an ongoing, and worsening, part of everyday life. As a global phenomenon, it is now undeniably pushing the needle on everything from agricultural collapse to global civil unrest, due largely to society’s dependence on CO2-emitting fossil fuels for transportation, heating, and electricity. But there’s always hope. Sustainable design is growing more and more prevalent in efforts to combat global climate change and lessen the resulting destruction of our one and only livable planet. Take this solar-powered aircraft or this sustainable coffee cup-turned-planter as recent examples of sustainable design pervading product design on a macro and micro level.

Green energy is a huge (and rapidly growing) part of sustainable design, but one of the key issues with large-scale green energy production – drawing mostly or entirely from natural energy sources like solar and wind, which produce zero carbon emissions, therefore slowing the roll of climate change – is solar panels and wind turbines provide far less energy than coal or oil power plants for the amount of land they take up. Many countries’ power grids are still mostly dependent on fossil fuel sources as a result, and since climate change ripples across the entire globe, the complex process of reaching a single unified solution is inevitably going to require the collaboration of the entire global workforce.

Soleolico is doing its part by putting several green energy sources together in the same space with its newly revealed photovoltaic “sails”, which are basically vertical-axis wind turbines (they have tall blades facing forward attached to a hub that’s facing upward, allowing the turbine to spin in a horizontal circumference) with solar panels mounted on the front part of the blades. As of October 6, one fully operational Soleolico unit is placed outside of the Palacio de la Magdalena in Santander, Spain, with hopefully many more installations to come.

Designer: Soleolico

Soleolico’s core idea is providing a 24/7 green energy source. Its individual blades are designed to automatically orient to the direction and strength of wind through the company’s “patented magnetic system”. Moreover, if either wind or solar become unavailable, the same system can lean on whichever resource is available, even storing excess power in built-in energy storage systems.

Generating green energy isn’t Soleolico’s only function. It also scrubs CO2 out of the air via a 3D-printable coating made of “natural agents” that make it similar to a tree. The company even goes as far as calling it the world’s “First Technological Tree”, given its ability to integrate naturally into forests and other important and complex ecosystems while providing a higher energy production capacity than traditional wind turbines.

The aforementioned 3D-printable coating, currently produced at the LaMáquina manufacturing center in Barcelona, Spain, uses Pure.Tech organic 3D-printing technology. According to Aldo Sollazzo, the Director of Pure.Tech, “the installation of 1,000 units of Soleolico absorbs the same amount of CO2 as 287 trees in a year, according to our calculations, based on data from the European Environmental Agency and our certified laboratories”.

That’s not all. Soleolico’s “sails” design can also display advertisements and branding imagery, making them function as self-sustaining electric billboards. It’s unclear how quickly it (and other technology like it) will catch on en masse, but the fact that such an invention exists and can be produced quickly thanks to new advancements in 3D-printing tech is ultimately hopeful.

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Proposed skyscraper concept captures CO2 from the air and turns it into starch

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This unique form of carbon capture is the result of a 2021 scientific study of synthesizing starch from CO2. The City Chloroplast skyscraper concept puts this research into practical use, doing the job of a massive plant that absorbs CO2 from the city air on a regular basis.

An entry at this year’s eVolo Skyscraper Contest, the City Chloroplast is a massive carbon-capture device inspired directly by nature. Following the Chinese Government’s proposed policy of “Carbon Peak” in 2030, and “Carbon Neutrality” as early as 2050, the City Chloroplast works by removing CO2 from the air. The CO2 reduced to methanol by a catalyst and then converted by enzymes to carbon sugar units, then to starch. “In our skyscraper design, we designed different parts of the skyscraper, combining the steps and processes of carbon dioxide collection and capture, transportation, storage, and eventually starch production,” say the designers behind the concept. The primary structure of the skyscraper is equipped with membranes that collect and divide CO₂, which will then be directed through a massive transverse pipeline to an expansive circular chamber for storage. A series of devices for the synthesis of starch from carbon dioxide (CO₂) and hydrogen are distributed within the tower’s large annular space, while solar panels located on the top of the tower help provide the clean energy required to power the City Chloroplast’s underlying tech.

Designers: Kaiyu Chen, Yong Lin, Ziyi Li, Zhipeng Tao

In September 2021, the Chinese scientific research team presented a chemical-biochemical hybrid pathway for starch synthesis from carbon dioxide (CO₂) and hydrogen in a cell-free system. The artificial starch anabolic pathway (ASAP), consisting of 11 core reactions, was drafted by computational pathway design, established through modular assembly and substitution, and optimized by protein engineering of three bottleneck-associated enzymes. Although the laboratory method is a long way from being sustainable, energy efficient, economically viable or a replacement for traditional agriculture, it’s a breakthrough in artificially synthesizing starch from CO2, which is a world-first.

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The world’s largest algae growth pond uses nature-based technology to capture CO2 emissions

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Brilliant Planet, a renewable energy semiconductor manufacturing company, operates a 30,000-square-meter production facility where they capture CO2 emissions via the largest algae growth pond in the world.

Algae is like magic. Consumed by humans as a superfood, algae promotes healthy skin, produces essential amino acids, and contains Omega-3 fatty acids. Then, on a larger scale, when algae are grown in the sunlight, the plants absorb carbon dioxide, like any other plant, and release oxygen into the atmosphere.

Designer: Brilliant Planet

For higher productivity rates, algae can be grown in controlled areas to absorb large amounts of CO2 and convert it to biomass and oxygen via photosynthesis. Brilliant Planet, a UK-based renewable energy semiconductor manufacturing company, is tapping into the magic of algae to create an affordable means of “permanently and quantifiably sequestering carbon at the gigaton scale,” as the company describes.

In 2013, Brilliant Planet began as a three-square-meter experiment on the shores of St Helena, South Africa. Today, they’ve grown into a 30,000-square-meter production facility based in the coastal desert of Morocco, where the world’s largest algae growth pond can be found. While algae systems, a full service that converts algae to energy, exist in high numbers around the world, Brilliant Planet stands apart from the rest by being entirely nature-based.

Speaking about their nature-based operation, Brilliant Planet notes, “We’re different from conventional algae systems. We don’t scale up an artificial test tube with artificial seawater and pumped in carbon dioxide. Our nature-based system scales down the ocean to use natural seawater, nutrients, and CO2. This natural process deacidifies seawater, enhances local ecosystems, and also enables paradigm-shifting levels of affordability.”

In the ocean, algae blooms take place seasonally, but Brilliant Planet developed a natural process that essentially “downscales” the ocean to grow algae quickly all year-round. Through this process, the algae system can sequester CO2 at far less cost and at a much quicker rate than direct air capture plants that are meant to capture airborne CO2 particles. For nearly five years, Brilliant Planet has been running its test site in Morocco to much avail, leading to plans for larger demonstration facilities and ultimately a commercial facility by 2024.

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Iceland opens largest carbon-capture and storage plant called Orca

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To say that climate change is one of, if not the biggest problems of this generation is most likely an understatement. The past few years we’ve seen all kinds of campaigns, businesses, products, and structures, all with the goal of bringing awareness to this problem and at the same time, reducing the carbon footprint in both small and big ways. Carbon capture is one of those phrases that we hear about even though there are still some who consider it a bit controversial. Late last year, we saw the largest direct air carbon capture plant start operating in Iceland.

Designer: Climeworks / Carbfix

Run by Swiss company Climeworks using technology from their local partner Carbfix, the plant is named Orca, probably after the whale although it doesn’t have any direct connection to marine life. Basically, what the plant does is to get the carbon dioxide from the air and then bury it in the rocks under the plant. It is located in Hellisheidi and is run on renewable energy from the adjacent geothermal power plant.

They say it is the “world’s first and largest climate-positive direct air capture and storage plant”. When you hear the word plant, you would think of closed factory-like structures with towers or domes emitting smoke. But of course, since this is a carbon capture and storage plant, it looks nothing like that. It is made up of eight stackable container-sized collector units using a modular system. Think of it as giant airconditioner-looking units sucking up the carbon dioxide in the air.

The plant uses these large fans to pull in the air and it passes through a filtration system. Instead of the usual carbon capture process that re-uses the captured emission, it converts it for storage through the natural mineralization process and traps it in the stone under the plant. They are able to remove 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year which is equal to the emissions of 870 cars or 9,281 consumed barrels of oil, according to the greenhouse gas calculator.

Climeworks also launched a plant in Switzerland back in 2017 but that one was able to re0use the emissions for commercial use for things like fertilizers, fizzy drinks, and synthetic fuels. Orca is able to capture significantly more carbon dioxide with its stackable collector units. So in the long run, despite some criticism to carbon dioxide capture plants, this may help manage carbon emissions globally.

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This floating habitat concept captures carbon from the air and converts it into electricity!

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Carbon Capture Refuge X is a conceptual habitat that is a dystopian dream but in the best way possible! Yee envisions these to be floating structures that capture carbon from the air and convert it into electricity. It will be a community created for scientists and by scientists that sits within the Earth’s troposphere. Scientists in this habitat are working on environmental research but it will also be a space for refugees.

Each habit will feature solar panels and direct-air-capture fans that extract carbon from the atmosphere to be converted into electrical energy. The energy will run through neon strips within the structure’s floors, walls, and roofs. Yee describes these strips as “veins” designed to circulate utilities throughout the structure. They will also act like “muscles” that elongate to accommodate the system’s growth and open and close depending on the weather to allow air and natural light inside!

Carbon Capture Refuge X is an imaginative vision for a floating, technologically advanced future city. Even though the design seems like something you can only see in movies, it actually showcases achievable technologies such as carbon capture, which will have an important role to play in reversing climate change.

“War-ravaged by political upheaval and nearly rendered uninhabitable by natural disasters, earth’s refugees became ubiquitous. From the suffering and desperation, a manifestation to live with the earth and not just on the earth emerged. Scientists then developed a habitable living infrastructure known as Carbon Capture Refuge X. This living infrastructure simultaneously provided a sustainable way of living while filtering carbon out of the atmosphere,” explains Yee.

The design utilizes Earth’s magnetic field to suspend the habitable orb above the ground and sea, thus creating a floating structure in the troposphere.  Its physical form will be continuously evolving. Drones will be used for the distribution of goods to and between habitats. Far ahead in the future, Yee imagines that the orbs can be connected and plugged into one another.

Carbon Capture Refuge X will also feature rainwater collection which will be stored and filtered by vegetation and then used to supplement hydroponic farming. The vegetation creates a localized microclimate. There will also be a control centre that monitors the comfort, location, and communications of the habitat. The orbs now fill the sky with ecosystems without borders!

Designer: Bless Yee

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This black algae dyed t-shirt is Vollebak’s latest creation designed to suck carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere!

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Vollebak grows black algae in giant ponds located in California, which is collected and heat-treated to concentrate it into a black powder to be used as a pigment for dye.

Every day, we wear clothes without knowing how they’re made. Unless you’re already buying clothes from sustainable brands, most of the clothing we wear is produced from material that isn’t harvested responsibly, let alone biodegradable. Take the color black–our favorite everyday black t-shirts are colored by a pigment derived from petroleum called carbon black. However, Vollebak, a clothing brand that uses technology to produce sustainable t-shirts and bottoms, aims to reinvent the way that the color black is made.

Carbon black is a color pigment that’s used to dye our clothing black. After large plots of land called tar sands are stripped of all pre-existing vegetation and animal life, carbon black is extracted from the petroleum stored underground. Noticing the unsustainable practices of producing black clothing, Vollebak discovered that you don’t have to dig up any earth to access black algae.

Known for growing in ponds, black algae only needs sunlight and carbon dioxide to flourish. Having abundant access to a natural black pigment, Vollebak used material technology to collect and use black algae to dye their t-shirts black. The result? The Black Algae T-Shirt feels and looks just like a conventionally dyed t-shirt.

Each t-shirt from Vollebak is made from eucalyptus trees that are harvested from sustainably managed forests. Once the pulp from eucalyptus trees gets spun into a wearable fabric, each t-shirt is dyed with black algae ink, which continues to lock in the carbon dioxide it absorbed while still alive. In order to lock the carbon dioxide into the shirt for up to 100 years, Vollebak uses carbon capture technology to trap carbon dioxide at its emission source.

After harvesting black algae from their ponds, Vollebak puts the algae through a heat treatment that concentrates it into powder form. “The black algae ink has been engineered to be UV resistant so it will hold its color for years. But since this is a bio-based ink it won’t behave exactly like a petroleum-based ink. Over time the black color may brighten around the edges next to the seams. To make the algae last for as long as possible we recommend hand washing the t-shirt in cold water with as little detergent as possible.”

The T-shirts themselves are produced from eucalyptus trees that are harvested from sustainably managed forests. “The rest of the t-shirt is made from wood pulp from sustainably managed forests. Eucalyptus, beech, spruce are chipped and pulped, before being turned into fiber, then yarn, and finally fabric. All the wood is harvested from sustainable forestry plantations and certified by both the Forestry Sustainability Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Representing over 700 million acres of certified forests, the PEFC is the largest forest certification system in the world.” Instead of dyeing the shirt’s individual fibers black, Vollebak dyes the entire outer surface of their shirts in black algae ink, which is why the final color of each t-shirt is more of a very dark grey marl.

Since all the materials used to produce their Black Algae T-shirt, the shirt can biodegrade in about 12 weeks. Once the material has disappeared just the black algae ink will remain in an almost imperceptible, safe and non-toxic state. And while other organic materials release carbon dioxide when they decompose, this ink will continue storing its carbon for over 100 years.

Designer: Vollebak

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Engineered to be UV-resistant, the t-shirt will hold its color for years.

“The wood is turned into [the] fabric using an environmentally responsible and closed-loop production process. In practice, this means that over 99% of the water and solvent used to turn pulp into fiber is recycled and reused.”

Since its not petroleum-based ink, the black algae ink dye will brighten near the t-shirt’s seams and edges.