Imagine if carbon dioxide emissions, instead of being released into the atmosphere could instead be made into useful everyday products. A $20 million dollar prize was unveiled last week aimed at figuring out just that.
The call to submit ideas for how to actually do that came with the official announcement of the Carbon XPRIZE competition at a recent conference in Texas.
The XPRIZE foundation itself is a non-profit that manages contests in five areas, one of which is energy and the environment.
"What if we could incentivize innovators to help address climate change by turning CO2 emissions into something we can use."
Funding for this particular prize comes from energy company NRG and a group of Canadian oil sands companies. The four and a half year competition will test CO2 conversion at an American coal-fired power plant and a Canadian natural gas facility.