Lancashire engineer's green dream at MIT

Mark Everson has made it to the semi-finals of a global competition to find solutions to major world problems.

Solve is a program organised by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Mark, who is production director of Lifeline Language Services, has been chosen for his ideas about capturing the carbon gas produced by power stations using plants.

“Hydroponic Carbon Capture At Source” is a plan to use industrial carbon dioxide emissions to grow plants hydroponically in an accelerated high-density soilless environment, for food or biomass.

Chartered engineer Mark has now been invited to present his proposal at MIT’s HUBWeek event in Boston, Massachusetts on September 28.

Mark said: “It’s great using my expertise in our technical translation and systems here at Lifeline Language Services, but as a side-line I like to play with ideas for helping the planet.

“In 2014 I came up with the HCCAS concept, did some research and discussion with the IET (my professional Institute) which was favourable, and set up a little website. I received an email from MIT saying it had been selected, as an ‘exemplary’ approach to carbon removal, for their new Solve program which has the stated mission to ‘discover, evaluate, and advance solutions to global problems or challenges.”

His ideas include creating a hydroponic system which can easily be rolled out at many sites, using the CO2 which plants need to grow and the water and warmth from the fossil fuel burn process to accelerate plant production.