Georgia Tech has a cool idea: they want to capture carbon emissions in a car, and recycle it into new fuel not based on petroleum. Existent sequestration techniques don't address physically small sources of carbon emissions - but these sources apparently account for two-thirds of global carbon emissions.
In the first stage of the project, carbon will be captured on-board from conventional fuels. When you refuel, you drop off the accumulated carbon gunge. That is then shipped to a processing station to be turned into a new fuel. Eventually, when the system ramps up, there'll be enough synthetic fuel that fossil fuels won't be needed.
What I like about this is the systems view. It's also interesting that they put the sequestration machinery at the source - the car. I also like their two-stage approach, which will help adoption. I think one of the publications pertaining to this is here. The original article I read is here.
There's a book soon to be published by David J.C. MacKay, a Cambridge University professor, called Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air. There's a draft available for free at http://withouthotair.com/. The site has a number of other interesting documents, including a 4-page summary of the book, and a fascinating experiment with mobile phone chargers. There's even a link to a list of all the URLs in his book - very convenient and thoughtful.
I had the pleasure of meeting Prof. MacKay whilst on sabbatical in summer 2007. What struck me most about him (besides the wry British wit which, I'm told, is due to something in the water) was how level-headed he was. This, I think, comes through in his book.
