Klaus S. Lackner is the Founding Director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions (CNCE) and a professor in School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University. He is scientific advisor to Carbon Collect Limited (name changed from Silicon Kingdom Holdings Limited in April 2021), and senior science advisor to Aircela Inc. He is a pioneer in carbon management and is the first to suggest capturing carbon dioxide from air in the context of addressing climate change. His works include demonstrating and improving passive methods to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, integrating air capture technology with applications for using carbon dioxide, exploring safe and permanent disposal options for carbon dioxide, and identifying opportunities for automation and scaling. his publications have been cited 12771 times and his

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...

is 53. Previously, he was the director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the

Earth Institute {{Infobox organization , name = The Earth Institute , image = Ei blue1.gif , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption = , map2 = , type = , tax_id ...

. and Faculty in the Earth and Environmental Engineering department at Columbia University from 2001-2014. Along with CNCE executive director Allen Wright, he co-founded one of the first privately held air capture companies—Global Research Technologies (GRT)—in

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

where they demonstrated the moisture swing. Prior to his academic work he held appointments at the theoretical division of

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

for nearly 17 years. His idea of the self-replicating machines along with his colleague, Christopher Wendt, was featured in 1995 by

Discover Magazine ''Discover'' is an American general audience science magazine launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It has been owned by Kalmbach Publishing since 2010. History Founding ''Discover'' was created primarily through the efforts of ''Time'' m ...

as "One of the 7 Ideas that can Change the World." He has also invented the Mechanical Tree which is designed to soak up passively the carbon dioxide from the air.

Mechanical trees

Klaus designed the prototype Mechanical Tree (also referred to as a ''Synthetic Tree'' or ''Fake Tree'',) which is on display at the 'Our Future Planet' temporary exhibition at the Science Museum, London from May 2021 until September 2022. The technology consists of sorbent tiles which cyclically are extended into the air and then retracted for regeneration. The sorbent tiles passively soak up the

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...

from the air using 'passive direct air capture' (PDAC) technology and are claimed to be 1,000 times more efficient than natural trees that use

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...

. Subsequently the

captured can be either sequestered in underground geological formations or sold for industrial use. The PDAC and Mechanical Tree technology has been licensed to Carbon Collect Limited by CNCE.

Articles

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lackner, Klaus S. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Arizona State University faculty Columbia University faculty Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty Heidelberg University alumni