Global warming will likely need some inventive solutions.

The project is a plant in British Columbia that sucks carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with the ambitious goal of turning the gas into fuel. Given that CO2 makes up just 0.04 per cent of the air we breath, it’s certainly a tall order.

The plant works by vacuuming in large volumes of air through what effectively works as a cooling tower where CO2 is absorbed by a liquid solution, and then transformed into pellets of calcium carbonate. The pellets are then heated to 900 degrees to release pure carbon.

The plant is able to capture about one tonne of carbon dioxide a day, which according to CBC, is the equivalent of taking about 100 cars off the road annually.

Given the incredibly unlikely chance that world leaders will manage to implement a universal scheme that will see a reversal of global warming, innovative solutions may well be required to address the growing problem.

That was the impetus for the Calgary-based Carbon Engineering company to create the plant, according to its founder, acclaimed Harvard physicist David Keith.

Keith has worked in climate science and technology for 20 years and was listed as one of TIME magazine’s Heroes of the Environment 2009.

Speaking to MIT’s Technology Review this week, he said he wanted to convince the sceptics that the idea could prove to be a cost effective solution to tackling global warming.

At the moment the $9 million plant costs about has not proven cost effective but Keith thinks on a larger scale they can operate such a plant for $100 per tonne of CO2 captured.

Last month the company secured $8.4 million in funding from investors which included Bill Gates.

“Most people in the energy expert space think that air capture is not particularly credible,” Keith said.

“There won’t be incentives and funding in a serious way for these technologies unless people believe that they actually work.”

Global Warming will likely need some inventive solutions. Picture: Paul Crock/AFPSource:News Limited