The goal of this project is to create a public domain Carbon Sink that could be built inexpensively by large cities around the world to reduce our collective carbon footprint. The Sink will passively remove Co2 from the atmosphere while requiring little to no maintenance.

Taken alone, any one unit would provide a negligible effect, yet built en mass they would remove substantial amounts of C02 from the atmosphere. My proposed design is simple but incomplete.

Simply put, I wish to create a sustainable biosphere similar in principle to this example: http://www.abundantearth.com/store/ecosphere.html

The Carbon Sink would be composed of a fifty foot shaft atop which rests a cylindrical self sustained ecosystem. Phytoplankton would compose the basis of this enclosed ecosystem. The unit could be mounted atop most any city building.

An inlet into the ecosystem in which carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could be fed must be developed. In addition, an artificial ecosystem in which the phytoplankton would be dependent on this incoming C02 would need to be designed.

Specifically, a method in which carbon dioxide-and only carbon dioxide- could fall passively into the ecosystem without otherwise compromising said ecosystem is sought.

Over time the krill will eat the plankton and die in successive generations. The silt layer that forms over many years will contain the captured co2.

This work is and always will be in the public domain. No design developed here or knowledge gained herein should be used to attempt to procure a private patent by anyone.

I have drafted a simple design to get us started. I am currently working in Autodesk Inventor 9 so if you have any design modification suggestions let me know and I'll get to work on it.