Following up on our thesis that CO2 - from both coal-fired power plants and coal-to-liquid conversion factories can, and should be viewed as a recoverable, valuable by-product of coal use, not just a bothersome pollutant, we submit this article.
An excerpt:
"Global Research Technologies, LLC (GRT), a technology research and development company, and Klaus Lackner from Columbia University have achieved the successful demonstration of a bold new technology to capture carbon from the air. The "air extraction" prototype has successfully demonstrated that indeed carbon dioxide (CO2) can be captured from the atmosphere."
Actually, Columbia University's work, though commendable and remarkable, is not the first demonstration of artificial CO2 capture from the atmosphere itself. Regardless, though, it reinforces the contention that CO2 can be not just captured on a meaningful industrial scale, from the atmosphere, but recycled, as in the following:
"For example, the CO2 originating from all those vehicles in Bangkok can be captured in an oil field in Alberta, Canada, where it could be used on-site for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations or it could be captured in South Africa to feed a growing demand in that country for feed stocks for petrochemical production."
The technology is "here". All that's lacking is the public awareness of it, and the national will to use it.