In recent years, attempts have been made to promote the use of public transport as much as possible. First of all, great importance was attached to train. But not only for the transport of passengers, but also for products, since it is much less polluting than transporting and delivering the same cargo on trucks. For this reason, a group of scientists from University of Toronto developed a train whose wagons can collect carbon dioxide (CO2) atmosphere. In this way, emissions will not only be reduced, but those that already exist will be eliminated.
At present, carbon dioxide capture is carried out in fixed stations. The problem is that they require acquisition of a large amount of land, as well as many very difficult to obtain permits. In addition, they are not approved by the population living in the surrounding areas. All of this is a problem that is easily solved with this train that keeps moving, doing invisible work. As they say, two birds with one stone are killed.
The train design has just been presented in a study published in the journal Joule. It has yet to be implemented in practice, but the first calculations show that it wouldn’t be hard. Who knows? We may soon have a type of vehicle that captures CO2 from the atmosphere while reducing its emissions. This is definitely win win
Why is CO2 so harmful?
Carbon dioxide, like other greenhouse gases, is not dangerous. as such. In fact, they are very necessary. If they were not in the atmosphere, most of the solar radiation hitting the Earth’s surface and reflected back into space would be lost, resulting in a large cooling. Without them, our average ambient temperature will be -18°C, so we can be very grateful for this demonized effect. The problem is that human activities have caused levels of CO2 and other similar gases to rise much higher than necessary. In the last century, we have gone from 300 parts per million of carbon dioxide to 415 parts per million. The figure continues to rise, and global warming has long been dangerous.
Therefore, it is important to reduce emissions by trying capture and store some of the carbon dioxide which has already been released into the atmosphere. There are natural mechanisms to achieve them. For example, this is the work done trees on the ground or meadows of posidonia in the sea. But its effect is beginning to be insufficient. Artificial mechanisms must be created, and this is where the train, developed at the University of Toronto, comes into play.
Atmospheric Purification Train
A train designed to capture CO2 from the atmosphere, wagons with ventilation through which air enters in large quantities. Thus, as its designers explain in a statement, “there is no need for energy-intensive fan systems used by stationary direct air capture systems.”
On the other hand, as soon as enough carbon dioxide is captured, the chamber closes and the collected carbon dioxide collected, concentrated and stored in a liquid tank until it can be emptied. To do this, the train uses stops for crew changes or refueling.
Finally, the carbon-dioxide-free air exits the back or bottom of the train and is returned to the atmosphere. By repeating this on every run, such a train could seize and store up to 6000 tons of gas per year.
It should be noted that CO2, which is emitted from the train at the respective stops, is sent to one of the deposits located for this purpose around the world. Hence the carbon dioxide stationary installationsbut in this case, everything is much simpler.
Now, unfortunately, money is needed, even when it comes to saving the planet. For this reason, these scientists also worked diligently on the economic calculations of their invention. Thus, they saw that “the projected cost of scaling will be less than $50 per ton“. Therefore, it is not only efficient and good for the planet, but also very economical. All of them are advantages.
Source: Hiper Textual
