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" SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- In the back of his Freightliner van, Derek McLeish tips a nondescript gray powder into a thick-sided metal flask. &amp;quot;This is the kind of particulate we can get from mine slimes,&amp;quot; he says, referring to calcium-heavy mine waste. McLeish, the CEO of Carbon Sciences, pours in a little water from a plastic bottle, screws the top of the flask shut, and opens a valve to let in pure carbon dioxide. &amp;quot;This gas comes from a tank,&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;but we can build a plant anywhere there&amp;#039;s a waste CO2 pipeline.&amp;quot; Apply high temperature and pressure to the slurry-filled flask, and three hours later you&amp;#039;ve got a substance called precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC), which makes up products as diverse as paper, chalk, fertilizer and toothpaste.  It may look like a Bill Nye the Science Guy demo, but this process illustrates a novel way of eliminating CO2 from the atmosphere: turn it into salable consumer goods. Mines all over the world spit out tailings--the industry word for mine slime--at a rate of hundreds of thousands of tons per day, and in the U.S. alone, coal-fired power plants emit 5.2 million tons of CO2 during the same interval.  Last year, McLeish and colleague Mike Wyrsta had a eureka moment. What if they could chemically combine mine slime and CO2 waste streams, then sell the resulting PCC to companies looking for new sources of raw material? &amp;quot;We can&amp;#039;t just shut down all the power plants and stop burning fossil fuels,&amp;quot; McLeish says. &amp;quot;So the question is, what can you do now to help deal with all the CO2?&amp;quot; Energized, he recruited a team of local engineers to help him build a mobile, small-scale carbon-transformation system in his van&amp;#039;s rear compartment. Over the next three years, he plans to develop a full-scale pilot system capable of processing CO2 from major emitters like coal-fired power plants.  Carbon Sciences isn&amp;#039;t the only firm aiming to turn greenhouse gases into lucrative goods. An Austin, Texas, startup called Skyonic has developed a way to capture 90 percent of CO2 from smokestacks and combine it with sodium hydroxide to make sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda. And Novomer, based in Ithaca, N.Y., aims to convert carbon dioxide into different forms of biodegradable plastic using a top-secret chemical catalyst.  At first glance, companies like these appear on course to realize the green-tech dream of saving the planet while turning a profit. And onlookers are endorsing their have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too strategy: Novomer recently scored $6.6 million in funding from Flagship Ventures and other investors, and Carbon Sciences just inked a high-profile research agreement with Finland&amp;#039;s Abo University, which has been investigating the potential of so-called &amp;quot;carbon transformation&amp;quot; for years. McLeish claims major construction and pharmaceutical companies have already expressed interest in buying his end product. &amp;quot;This technology will catch on in the marketplace,&amp;quot; predicts Lara Abrams, a San Francisco-based business strategist who consults companies on market development issues. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s the most intelligent and viable approach to CO2 capture and re-use that I&amp;#039;ve seen thus far.&amp;quot; But turning a great-sounding concept into a commercial reality isn&amp;#039;t going to be easy. Because carbon dioxide is a low-energy molecule, converting it to other substances requires copious heat and pressure, racking up steep costs that could eat into profits. The viability of companies like Skyonic and Carbon Sciences will depend on the efficiency of their finished production processes, says Jim Sears, president of A2BE Carbon Capture, which is developing a plant to convert waste carbon dioxide into biofuels using algae. &amp;quot;Infrastructure and econometrics are the core questions. What rails, roads and pipelines will be needed? Will users get this mineral carbonate product cheaper with this technology?&amp;quot; Ken Caldeira, an ecologist at Stanford&amp;#039;s Carnegie Institution, points out that even if CO2-to-goods ventures prove wildly successful, they won&amp;#039;t represent a complete solution to the greenhouse gas problem. There&amp;#039;s still the little matter of personal (as opposed to industrial) emissions. In order to offset the estimated 30 lbs. of carbon dioxide each American emits daily, he says, individuals would have to buy a carbon-transformation product that weighs considerably more than that (since carbon would only be one component), each and every day. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s an awful lot of chalk and wallboard,&amp;quot; Caldeira says. While McLeish admits carbon transformation is no panacea, he thinks it&amp;#039;s a more palatable--and profitable--alternative to storing CO2 underground. &amp;quot;Geological sequestration is like putting your garbage in a landfill. You don&amp;#039;t know the second-order effects it&amp;#039;s going to have on the environment,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;Mineralizing, on the other hand, is like recycling: Sure, we&amp;#039;re going to run into scale-up issues, but what we&amp;#039;re doing here is not rocket science--it&amp;#039;s known chemistry. There aren&amp;#039;t any tremendous scientific breakthroughs required to make it work.&amp;quot;  RELATED STORIES * PLUS: Carbon Sequestration&amp;#039;s 5 Challenges to Fix Global Warming  * TECH WATCH: Geoengineering Experts Favor Fake Volcanoes  * FIRST LOOK: Air-Capture Gadget Scrubs Away Carbon Emissions  * COMPLETE COVERAGE: More Sustainable Tech for Greener Living   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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