In the upper floors of the Terminal Commerce Building on North Broad hums a bulky, silver machine. With two silver ducts sticking out on either side, the device is about as long as a refrigerator laid down horizontally. The contraption looks like any other big-building thingamabob you might find tucked away in a basement or utility closet. But looks can be deceiving: This piece of HVAC tech is a high-tech carbon capsule — and it wants to help solve our urban emissions crisis.
Worldwide, buildings account for 37 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide (Co₂) emissions comprise 81 percent of all greenhouse gas, a primary cause of climate change. Philly’s carbon emissions totaled 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2019 — the most recent year for which data was available.
There are many ways to make existing buildings greener: Add garden roofs and solar panels, improve insulation, install energy-efficient lighting, doors and windows (including windows that open), use low-VOC surfaces and furnishings, harvest rain. But the biggest way to reduce a building’s carbon footprint — and energy costs? Improve its air.
That’s the goal of Philly-based Carbon Reform: Build systems to permanently sequester Co₂ from the air.
Nick Martin and Jo Norris’s four-year-old company combines air filtration technology with a device that removes carbon dioxide and transforms it into small pellets of calcium carbonate — also known as limestone. The filters also remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs), viruses like Covid and other pollutants, so the air is cleaner, too.