Air as the renewable carbon source of the future: an overview of CO2 capture from the atmosphere

The burning of our diminishing fossil fuel reserves is accompanied by a large anthropogenic CO2 release, which is outpacing nature's CO2 recycling capability, causing significant environmental harm. Much is being done to avert this crisis including more efficient technology for usage, savings and replacing carbon fuels with alternatives whenever feasible. The capture of CO2 followed by sequestration (CCS) into geologic formation or under the seas has also been proposed and in some cases implemented. Carbon capture and recycling (CCR) to fuels and materials is another promising approach. At first, capturing carbon dioxide from concentrated sources such as fossil fuel burning power plants, industrial plants and…