It appears that synthetic trees aren’t just for Christmas – they could help us battle environmental problems too.

Columbia University has announced the development of a tree structure that could capture carbon 1,000 times faster than a real tree. The idea is that it would be used to capture carbon emitted into the air by vehicles and aeroplanes.

According to Professor Klaus Lackner, who has been working on the concept since 1998, the models would be flexible in size and can fit anywhere. They work by collecting carbon dioxide (CO2) on a sorbent, then cleaning and pressurising the gas and releasing it. Depending on the size, each tree could absorb as much as one ton of CO2 a day – enough to cover the output of around 20 cars.

Unsurprisingly however, this concept does not come cheap with manufacturing of the structure costing around $30,000. In the US for example, there are around 135million cars – meaning at least 6.8million of these trees would be needed.

However, Professor Lackner has not given up on his idea and has involved Global Research Technologies of Tucson Arizona and visited US Energy Secretary Steven Chu to discuss the matter further. He believes the concept will be much more efficient than traditional windmills.

Let’s just hope that if the idea does take off, it doesn’t threaten the real trees that pay such an important role in our lives.