Movigi does the unnecessary and develops an artificial tree that captures CO2
As we should always do with "breakthrough technologies," let's take this with a pinch of salt. A Spanish company named Movigi Spain Air Filter claims that they have developed a sort of artificial tree that is able to capture CO2 from the atmosphere by means of synthetic photosynthesis. We should say that the company, which worked with scientists from the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló in Spain, claims to have developed the large device that looks like a tree. They have not yet provided images to prove it (so if you saw the picture and though, hey, that looks pretty real. Well...).The system is supposed to work regardless of solar light and the device is so unobtrusive that it can be placed in public spaces. Movigi Spain Air Filter already makes air purifiers that remove CO2 from closed spaces, so they have a little bit of history with the idea. However, I still prefer to use a natural device to suck CO2 out of the air: trees.
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[Source: Movigi]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 9:33AM (11/15/2007)
Spain has a severe shortage of water in many places. Trees are the best evaporators in the world, i.e. they consume a lot of water. Many cities in Spain cannot afford to maintain large numbers of trees in their public spaces.
If this device is sufficiently convincing facsimile of a tree, it may be of some use in arid regions. Any CO2 capture is strictly for the birds compared to spending the same money on protecting some tropical rain forest.
It tried to find out more but the Movigi web site is so full of frou-frou Flash animations that it took too long for me to bother even on a broadband connection.
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Beeri 10:44AM (11/15/2007)
Well if it's doing photosynthesis it would have to use water...
Trees actually emit CO2 at night and in the winter for deciduous trees (remember the zig zag chart in Incovenient Truth)
I don't know why the negative attitude by the author on this....
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Peter 11:55AM (11/15/2007)
I agree that incorporating natural trees would be ideal, but in some cases it is not practical. A man made device that captures CO2 without using soil or requiring controlled amounts of sunlight could be used indoors where trees cannot. I would, however, like to see an energy balance of the device to figure out how long it would need to run to make up for the CO2 produced in its production.
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MarkR 12:16PM (11/15/2007)
Good one peter! and I don't get the authors comment either Beeri. Because if there was a machine that could suck in co2 efficient enough to start offsetting our emissions, I'm all for it. Hell strap it to one of the new, solar powered remote controled planes, send it up and let it start washing the windows to the stars.
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fnc 4:23PM (11/15/2007)
I think that I shall never see
a CO2 capture device
as lovely as a tree.
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