{"id":18052,"date":"2012-01-11T11:52:01","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=18052"},"modified":"2012-01-11T11:52:01","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:52:01","slug":"cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/","title":{"rendered":"How Plastic Trees Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>We know that real trees soak up carbon from the atmosphere &#8212; but fake trees?<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure  id=\"attachment_18126\" class=\"wp-caption right\" style=\"max-width: 300px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/palms-and-sun-smaller\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-18126\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18126\" title=\"palms and sun smaller\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/01\/palms-and-sun-smaller.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/01\/palms-and-sun-smaller.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/01\/palms-and-sun-smaller-160x120.jpg 160w, https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/01\/palms-and-sun-smaller-240x180.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">And you thought plastic palm trees had no redeeming value...<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A cheap plastic that removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere? &#8220;Yes,&#8221; says a team of chemists at the University of Southern California&#8217;s \u00a0(USC) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usc.edu\/uscnews\/stories\/15448.html\">Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute<\/a>, led by Nobel Prize winner George Olah. <em><a href=\"http:\/\/news.sciencemag.org\/sciencenow\/2012\/01\/new-co2-sucker-could-help-clear-.html\">Science Now<\/a><\/em> reports on their work with an inexpensive polymer called polyethylenimine or PEI.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">But how to maximize its absorption capabilities? Olah&#8217;s team dissolved the polymer in a solvent and spread it out, peanut-butter-style, on fumed silica &#8212; you know, like the stuff in those desiccant packets in your electronics packaging (&#8220;Do not eat,&#8221; by the way).\u00a0 It&#8217;s also used as a stabilizer for lipstick and other make-up.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Here are the geeky details from <em>Science Now<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When the researchers tested the new material&#8217;s CO<sub>2<\/sub>-grabbing abilities, they found that in humid air\u2014the kind present in most ambient conditions\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1021\/ja2100005?journalCode=jacsat&amp;quickLinkVolume=133&amp;quickLinkPage=20164&amp;volume=133\">each gram of the material sopped up an average of 1.72 nanomoles of CO<sub>2<\/sub><\/a>. That&#8217;s well above the 1.44 nanomoles per gram absorbed by a recent rival made from aminosilica and among the highest levels of CO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0absorption from air ever tested, the team reported last month in the\u00a0<em>Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/em>. Once saturated with CO<sub>2<\/sub>, the PEI-silica combo is easy to regenerate. The CO<sub>2<\/sub>floats away after the polymer is heated to 85\u00b0C. Other commonly used solid CO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0absorbers must be heated to over 800\u00b0C to drive off the CO<sub>2<\/sub>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Team member Surya Prakash says the polymer could also be used to make vast farms of artificial &#8220;trees&#8221; that could suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, much like real ones do. Prakash and Olah have been trying to stand the carbon paradigm on its ear for the past several years, exploring it as a positive rather than a negative for the planet.\u00a0\u201cPeople tend to think of CO2 as a problem rather than a resource,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe want to take CO2, and instead of burying it underground, use it as a raw material, and convert it with alternative energy sources back to fuels and feedstocks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We know that real trees soak up carbon from the atmosphere &#8212; but fake trees?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1272,"featured_media":18126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19,79,128,499],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-18052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thescience","tag-air","tag-carbon-capture","tag-co2","tag-science"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Plastic Trees Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Plastic Trees Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We know that real trees soak up carbon from the atmosphere -- but fake trees?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-11T19:52:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/01\/palms-and-sun-smaller.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"225\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kimberly Ayers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kimberly Ayers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/\",\"name\":\"How Plastic Trees Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-11T19:52:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-01-11T19:52:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/ae2ac9e7d64b6fd9c370acdd75b474b5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Plastic Trees Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/ae2ac9e7d64b6fd9c370acdd75b474b5\",\"name\":\"Kimberly Ayers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/2ea85f7cfcaf6cfd0640f652c2eb52c2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/08ee5b5027a2e1a24c1ede24f97fdf76?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/08ee5b5027a2e1a24c1ede24f97fdf76?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kimberly Ayers\"},\"description\":\"Kimberly Ayers has lived in California for more than 20 years, both north and south. Growing up in the Middle East as an \\\"oil brat,\\\" she has been blessed with lots of travel. Her storytelling has appeared most recently on the National Geographic Channel, including reporting from Belize and Egypt. For the past four years, she has produced the PBS stations' broadcast of the National Geographic Bee: the questions are really hard, and the kids are crazy-smart. At forty-something, she walked the Catalina Marathon, and most mornings you will find her walking somewhere on the SoCal coast.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/author\/kimberlyayers\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Plastic Trees Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air | Climate Watch","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Plastic Trees Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air | Climate Watch","og_description":"We know that real trees soak up carbon from the atmosphere -- but fake trees?","og_url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/","og_site_name":"Climate Watch","article_published_time":"2012-01-11T19:52:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":225,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/01\/palms-and-sun-smaller.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kimberly Ayers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kimberly Ayers","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/","url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/","name":"How Plastic Trees Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air | Climate Watch","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-01-11T19:52:01+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-11T19:52:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/ae2ac9e7d64b6fd9c370acdd75b474b5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/11\/cleaner-air-the-word-could-still-be-plastics\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Plastic Trees Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/","name":"Climate Watch","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/ae2ac9e7d64b6fd9c370acdd75b474b5","name":"Kimberly Ayers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/2ea85f7cfcaf6cfd0640f652c2eb52c2","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/08ee5b5027a2e1a24c1ede24f97fdf76?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/08ee5b5027a2e1a24c1ede24f97fdf76?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kimberly Ayers"},"description":"Kimberly Ayers has lived in California for more than 20 years, both north and south. Growing up in the Middle East as an \"oil brat,\" she has been blessed with lots of travel. Her storytelling has appeared most recently on the National Geographic Channel, including reporting from Belize and Egypt. For the past four years, she has produced the PBS stations' broadcast of the National Geographic Bee: the questions are really hard, and the kids are crazy-smart. At forty-something, she walked the Catalina Marathon, and most mornings you will find her walking somewhere on the SoCal coast.","url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/author\/kimberlyayers\/"}]}},"template_type":null,"featured_image_type":null,"is_audio_post":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18052"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18052"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=18052"},{"taxonomy":"affiliates","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/affiliates?post=18052"},{"taxonomy":"programs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/programs?post=18052"},{"taxonomy":"collections","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collections?post=18052"},{"taxonomy":"interests","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/interests?post=18052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}