Sucking CO2 out of the air to grow greenhouse crops?

What is the best way to get rid of greenhouse gases? The Swiss company Climeworks thinks the answer is to feed them to a greenhouse. The company is now building what is expected to be the world’s first plant to do so commercially.

The firm expects to be opening the plant near Zurich in September or October. The plant will suck carbon dioxide out of the ambient air and sell it to an agricultural company to spur the growth of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.

CO2 is already taken out of the air in enclosed spaces like submarines and space capsules. Climeworks will be using a similar process called direct air capture (DAC), in which normal ambient air is pushed through a fibrous sponge-like filter material that has been impregnated with chemicals called amines, derived from ammonia, which bind to CO2.

Once the filter is saturated, the gas will be released by warming it with the heat generated by a nearby municipal waste incineration plant, then piped to a 4 hectare greenhouse.

Read more at New Scientist