The U.N. Secretary-General pointed a straight finger at major emission polluters, when he visited the Pacific Islands recently. “The small islands don’t contribute to climate change,” he lamented. “But everything that happens because of climate change is multiplied here.” Could a tiny particle with great climate potential achieve more than world leaders have, we wonder. Surely, something must happen soon.
A Promethean Particle to Soak Up Climate Change
The Ancient Greek God Prometheus defied the established order by giving technology to humans in the form of fire. This revolutionized our civilization, although it added carbon to our atmosphere. A start-up in Nottingham, England has invented a tiny particle which it claims could absorb greenhouse gases.
The start-up, Promethean Particles, claims to have invented a tiny particle with great climate potential to soak up, and potentially store large quantities of polluting gases. Each teaspoon of super-absorbent nanoparticles has an internal surface area equivalent to a pair of tennis courts, they say.
Two venture capital investors have contributed ten million dollars in total to the Promethean Particles project. The money will go towards a larger manufacturing facility, and additional team members. This lends substance to an idea which might otherwise be pure science fiction.
Immediate Goals to Tap Into Climate Change Potential
The metal organic frameworks are currently very costly to produce. And so the immediate goal is to drive down the price of the porous extended structures, made from metal ions and organic linkers, to a level that makes them affordable. This could, for example, include using cheap and widely available zinc and magnesium metals.
The chief executive told BBC how flexible his company’s particles are. They can be structured as either sponges or sieves, and be ‘sticky’ for particular gases he explained.
“These properties,” he continued, “could be used to reduce the climate impact of producing cement, metals and energy, which continue to emit huge quantities of greenhouse gases. A prototype is already capturing carbon at Drax biomass power station in Yorkshire, England.
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Drax Power Station to Capture Carbon
