UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed
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Goal 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure
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Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities
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Goal 12: Responsible Production & Consumption
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Goal 13: Climate Action
2018 Global Design Challenge Finalist
This design concept was developed by participants in the Institute’s Global Design Challenge. The descriptions below are from the team’s competition entry materials.
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA, United States
Team members: Amin Zameel, Nidheesha Noushad, Karen Brodine
Innovation Details
This team looked to how nature captures carbon dioxide to create a carbon-scrubbing and filtering panel system that can be applied to buildings and other existing infrastructure along freeways and main streets to help lower greenhouse gases present in our atmosphere. extraction-design.com
1. What is the problem you’re trying to solve and how does your design help?
A main contributor to global climate change is greenhouse gas production, of which the two most common are carbon dioxide and water vapor. Our team is working to extract carbon dioxide in dense urban environments, where most carbon dioxide is generated from automobiles and industry.
2. What makes your design different than previous or current approaches to the problem you’re trying to solve?
We are looking to nature to create a passive, affordable, low-maintenance carbon dioxide extraction device, a different approach to what is commercially available today (energy-intensive carbon scrubbers).
3. How did you apply lessons from living organisms to your design and what difference did that make?
Team extrACTION is looking at capturing carbon dioxide from ambient air, including identified patterns in nature for optimal fluid flow and surface area maximization.
