Musk offers $100 mln prize for carbon capture

Elon Musk is offering a $100 million prize for the best technology to scrub carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

The Tesla founder announced the move on Twitter, saying full details would come next week.

Capturing planet-warming carbon emissions is becoming a critical part of plans to keep climate change in check.

But little progress has been made on the technology so far, with efforts focused on cutting emissions instead.

There's no shortage of ideas on how to capture and store carbon though.

In Iceland they've tried taking CO2 out of the air and turning it into rock stored far below the ground.

Swiss scientists have tried storing captured carbon in layers of impermeable clay deep under a mountain.

In 2019 U.S. startup Hypergiant Industries said it had designed a bioreactor that uses algae to capture and process carbon dioxide.

Over in Norway they've also tried algae.

A startup there has captured CO2 to grow the green gloop and turn it into feed for fish farms.

Next week firms and scientists like this will get a chance to decide if they want to take a shot at Musk's millions.