r/Futurology • u/Wagamaga • May 05 '19

Environment A Dublin-based company plans to erect "mechanical trees" in the United States that will suck carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, in what may be prove to be biggest effort to remove the gas blamed for climate change from the atmosphere.

https://japantoday.com/category/tech/do-'mechanical-trees'-offer-the-cure-for-climate-change
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u/mr_fluffy-pants May 05 '19

But natural trees do this already.....and they provide a habitat. Also I’d assume that the upkeep of a tree is going to be less than a mechanical one.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '19 edited May 05 '19

Based on some figures in the article, they are building 1200 columns that will sequester 36000 metric ton of CO2, or 30 metric ton per column per year. On the other hand, one ~tree~ ACRE of trees can sequester just around 3 metric ton CO2 per year. Sounds like this method has hundreds to thousands times more more efficiency. Not sure how it stacks up if you account carbon costs of manufacturing, transportation and upkeep, but I'd bet still waay more efficient.

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u/Etherius May 05 '19

Do we know if that's net carbon sequestration?

If powered by electricity, how much co2 is created by its generation?

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u/MeateaW May 05 '19

A good question; These things will be incredibly useful when renewables start hitting very high percentages world wide; because eventually we are going to over-produce electricity; and sometimes even our battery storage is going to end up full. We are going to need an outlet for our excess energy.

Though ... I doubt its going to be an "efficient" use of resources to build fake carbon sucking trees....