Global Thermostat coats the bricks with chemicals called amines to draw CO2 from the air and bind with it.

NEWYORKER: The Climate Fixers

The most common capture technologies involve running the gas to be processed through a solution of amines or ammonium carbonate.

ECONOMIST: Carbon capture and storage

Aromatic amines are used to manufacture plastics, dyes, drugs and pesticides.

BBC: Shanghai police probe 'toxic' school uniforms

He searched for years and eventually lighted on a mixture of oleic acid (a fatty acid found in various vegetable oils) and nitrogen-containing compounds called amines.

ECONOMIST: To make engines cleaner, add H2O

Because both of these approaches need totally new plant, they have received less attention than post-combustion capture technologies such as amines, which can be fitted onto the end of existing power stations.

BBC: Whatever happened to carbon capture?

In part, the idea is to refine the approach first recognised in the 1930s, which exploits the chemical affinity between carbon dioxide and nitrogen-based molecules such as ammonia or the closely-related amines.

BBC: Whatever happened to carbon capture?

The carbon-rich solution, meanwhile, is treated in a separate vessel to release its burden of CO2, which can then be piped away and stored, and the amines or ammonium carbonate thus liberated recycled.

ECONOMIST: Carbon capture and storage