New patent captures CO2 in air to use in vertical farms

Entrepreneur and inventor Darin Pastor filed a patent to create the first ever mass-producing and emission free fuel and agricultural manufacturing facility.

Pastor filed a provisional patent for a process related to the capture of carbon dioxide emissions, electricity, and water byproducts from gas-to-liquid synthetic fuel manufacturing and its application within vertical farming.

Pastor’s patent-pending invention enables a gas-to-liquid synthetic fuel manufacturing facility to produce lower emission fuels, while emitting no harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere during production.

Gas-to-liquid fuel facilities create substantial carbon dioxide emissions during production that lack toxic molecules such as sulfur and other aromatics. This creates a unique opportunity to capture carbon dioxide and redirect the greenhouse gas into vertical farms (which need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis), resulting in larger, more nutrient rich fruits and vegetables.

Further, gas-to-liquid fuel production generates almost three times the needed electricity to run their facility. By combining gas-to-liquid facilities and vertical farms, the potential profitability of both facilities becomes more attractive. In impoverished regions where fresh water is difficult to come by, the process could even be used to desalinize seawater and make it useable for consumption, vertical farming, and even traditional farming.

Vertical farming offers advantages traditional farming does not. For example, vertical farming requires substantially less land, increases the size and frequency of crop yields, and provides crops protection from unfavorable weather conditions. Because of the reduced land requirement, vertical farms can be located near or in metropolitan areas.

Pastor’s firm plans to develop at least ten facilities throughout the rustbelt region of the United States, in cities such as Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Cleveland, Detroit, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and in impoverished areas globally.