Though the ‘Synthetic Tree’ may hardly resemble its natural brethren, developers hope it will capture more than a thousand times as much carbon dioxide as the real thing. The working prototype traps carbon in a compression chamber where it is converted into liquid carbon dioxide, a byproduct that is easier to store and manage. It’s similar in design to the carbon sponges used in coal power plants, but is intended to work anywhere.
The lead developer and Columbia University scientist, Professor Klaus Lackner notes in a CNN interview,
“Half of your emissions come from small, distributed sources where collection at the [...]




