Fermentalg, the company founded and led by French researcher Pierre Caleja, has recently developed street lighting that could one day soak CO2 from the air with the use of microalgae.
Caleja’s company had received several millions in funding from various private investors in recent years to discover ways of harvesting the power of microalgae to produce clean biofuels.
The researcher says his streetlights can absorb about a ton of carbon dioxide each year, without expensive carbon capturing technologies or advanced filters. Instead, it uses filters that have been evolving for millions of years and that are even more efficient than trees.
The CO2 these plants gather could then be used to make biofuels, which would bring the total carbon footprint to zero. If someone will want to sink the CO2 deep underground, then the overall equation would be negative, which I think is more desirable than fueling transportation technology that’s already doomed.
http://youtu.be/wuWDex5mh5Y
[via grist/cleantechnica]
