Your first thoughts of climate change-fighting technologies may be gleaming solar panels or futuristic automobiles that run without combustion. However, some of the most significant eco-friendly technology is downplayed.

One of the most difficult issues to address is what to do with all of the carbon dioxide emitted by fossil fuel plants. There has been a slew of concepts for capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide from the air and energy generation, with variable results. A revved-up piece of cotton cloth, according to the latest theory, could be the solution.

Jialong Shen and Sonja Salmon of North Carolina State University designed a piece of fabric that can successfully sweep up and trap emissions using a cotton cloth and an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase, which exists in the human body and helps humans control carbon dioxide.

They just published their findings in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemical Engineering. The material is rolled into a roll and then placed within a tube, similar to how wet paper towels would be placed inside a glass funnel.

Carbonic anhydrase works to convert carbon dioxide and water into bicarbonate as residual gas from fossil fuel production seeps in through the bottom. The funnel then drips a mixture of water and bicarbonate, which can be utilized to generate more energy or reacted with calcium to make limestone.

Salmon, an associate professor of textile engineering, chemistry, and science at NC State, explains, 'We chose cotton purposefully because it can hold a lot of water and can spread the water out into an extremely thin film.' 'This allows the gas to react or interact with the water quite closely.'

When the the the the the the air was pumped through the apparatus at a rate of four liters per minute, the material was able to capture 52.3 percent of carbon dioxide with a single filter and 81.7 percent with a double layer. The researchers noticed a good degree of performance even after washing and reusing the fabric five times.

While some carbon capture technologies rely on rarer materials or more complicated procedures, the process of producing cotton fabric has been around since the dawn of humanity. Not to mention that we already produce and manufacture a large amount of material, whether for clothing or industrial reasons, implying that the supply chain for these filters is already in place.

'The production pace is not at all a restriction,' explains Shen, a postdoctoral research scholar in textiles. 'That is the primary advantage of this material above others. People have been working on a large-scale carbon capture material... with textile-based technologies, we can use current textile production facilities to generate new uses for businesses.'

Carbon capture from the atmosphere will not solve all of our problems: If we want to escape the worst-case climate scenario, we must substantially limit our usage of fossil fuels and modify the way we consume energy.

However, as emissions rise and efforts to reduce them become more critical, Salmon believes that all types of technologies must be examined. Simple solutions like this one could be modest pieces of the puzzle that help us make progress toward environmental protection while we focus on more radical initiatives.

'Want energy?' We love our phones. Everyone likes driving. 'We all like hot showers,' she says. 'Unless we give up now.' It's necessary. All technologies must be employed. There's no saving technology. Complete them all 'Protecting the world while pursuing bolder goals.

“We want energy. We all love our cell phones. We all love driving our cars. We all love our hot showers,” she says. “Unless we're prepared to all give that up right away. We have to do this. It's an all technology must be deployed situation. It's not one technology not going to save us. We have got to do them all.”