Nazarbayev University professor’s invention may help address climate change20 january 2014, 15:22
A couple of decades ago Nazarbayev University Biology Professor Peter Rogers invented a bioreactor that could remove carbon dioxide
Nazarbayev University professor’s invention may help address climate change20 january 2014, 15:22
A couple of decades ago Nazarbayev University Biology Professor Peter Rogers invented a bioreactor that could remove carbon dioxide from the air inside diesel electric submarines and other closed environments.
Now the Montreal-based company he founded, CO2 Solutions, is making news for pursuing a holy grail of energy production: clean coal.
The company, which Peter sold in the late 1990s, is working on a low-cost way to remove carbon dioxide from the emissions of coal-fired power plants. It uses the same carbonic-anhydrase enzyme that Peter used in his submarine bioreactor.
Preliminary tests have been successful.
Widespread application of CO2’s approach could dent climate change. That’s because coal-fired plants account for much of the world’s energy. In the United States the figure is 42 percent, in coal-rich Kazakhstan a whopping 85 percent.
Dr. Peter Rogers invented a cardon-dioxide-removing bioreactor. Photo courtesy of Peter Rogers
Nazarbayev University is always looking for innovative researchers like Peter. President Nursultan Nazarbayev told the university’s founders four years ago that the institution needed to become world-class in both teaching and research.
A key reason he wanted research prowess was to take Kazakhstan’s economy to the next level. He and other Kazakhstan leaders are counting on Nazarbayev University playing a pioneering role in creating an innovation-based economy that generates cutting-edge products and creates good-paying jobs.
Photo courtesy of mccormick.northwestern.edu
Dr. Rogers holds the original patent on the bioreactor he invented to take carbon dioxide out of the air in diesel electric submarines.
Nuclear submarines can stay underwater for weeks because they have devices that can 