“A new way to capture carbon dioxide from smokestacks produces a raw
material that can be sequestered underground or turned into substances
such as baking soda, chalk, or limestone. CO2 Solution, of Quebec City,
Canada, has already tested its process on a small municipal incinerator
and an Alcoa aluminum smelter. Its scientists are now working with
power-plant equipment giant Babcock and Wilcox on ways to adapt the
technology to a coal-fired generating station.
“The company has genetically engineered E. coli bacteria to produce an
enzyme that converts carbon dioxide into bicarbonate. The enzyme sits at
the core of a bioreactor technology that could be scaled up to capture
carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants that run on fossil fuels--a
timely development as political support grows for cap-and-trade schemes
that assign a market value to carbon.”
