The whole world is making efforts to fight against rising global warming issues; an Israeli startup has also joined the forces by seeking inspiration from the upper atmosphere. The startup’s sole idea is to send balloons to the upper atmosphere, where they trap the carbon dioxide for recycling purposes.
The leading cause of climate change is the Carbon Dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and from industrial agriculture. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has gone up from 275 parts per million (ppm) before the industrial revolution to around 400 parts per million in 2020, which is a 50% increase.
However, removing carbon dioxide at a standard temperature from the atmosphere requires too much energy for the companies and governments to consider it cost-efficient.
A system has been developed by the High Hopes Labs, which captures the Carbon in the atmosphere where it is almost solidified that is far above the Earth.
The CEO of High Hopes Labs, Nadav Mansdorf, said that the beautiful thing about capturing gas is that it is very easy when it is close to freezing.
He further said that Carbon is freezing in minus 80 degrees (Celcius) and the only place where the Carbon’s temperature is close to this is 9 miles (15 kilometers) above our heads.
CEO Nadav Mansdorf said that the company had tested this system on a small scale as of now. He further added that they release gas-filled balloons with a box underneath it that acts as a carbon-capturing device.
The frozen Carbon retrieved is separated from the air to be brought back to Earth and then recycled.
Within two years, the company has aimed to build more enormous balloons, from which one each would be deployed to remove a tonne of Carbon daily and at a cost below $100 that is very much less as compared to the on-ground facilities already in use, said CEO Nadav Mansdorf.