There are two ways to cut down on our greenhouse-gas emissions: Reduce the amount we make or limit how much of what we make actually gets into the atmosphere.

It’s the second solution that researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory want to tackle with cute caviar-sized bubbles that can absorb carbon dioxide.

The polymer bubbles are filled with the entirely pedestrian ingredient of baking soda, long known to absorb carbon dioxide, but it’s the bubbles themselves that are the breakthrough. They’re permeable, which means that CO₂ gets trapped and absorbed by the baking soda solution inside them. In theory, you could affix the bubbles to the inside of a power plant smokestack and trap the CO₂ before it is released into the atmosphere.

They’re also reusable. The CO₂ can be released again by heating the bubbles in a sealed container. The released CO₂ can be kept in tanks or safely pumped back underground while the bubbles can go back into the smokestack and start their world-saving job all over again.

Bloomberg’s profile of Lawrence Livermore’s carbon-capturing technology is the latest installment of The Spark, which looks at innovators finding solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems.

David Fuller's view

Climate change will remain controversial, unless something really bad happens, which we obviously do not want.  We have a responsibility to look after our plant, and it is reassuring to see how many intelligent people are working on sensible policies to reduce pollution.  Technology has most of the big answers to environmental problems, and a more prosperous, better educated global population will help the cause.