Feb. 18, 2008 - Amid growing concern over global warming's impact on the winemaking industry, Spanish vintner Miguel Torres is attempting to capture and store the carbon dioxide emissions from his fermenting grapes, AFP reports. Speaking at a winemakers' summit in Barcelona, Spain, over the weekend, Torres said he had set up the industry's first emissions recovery process with the aim of storing the captured CO2 deep underground.

"We are trying to convert CO2 into something solid, which will remain in the ground, instead of being emitted into the air," he said of his small operation in the Andean foothills of Chile. If successful, the program will be expanded to Torres' larger wine producing facilities in Spain with the aid of the regional government of Catalonia.

The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recommended carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a potentially viable technology for preventing greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the Earth's atmosphere. CCS is currently being tested at locations throughout the world, and the U.S. Department of Energy recently shifted its focus toward funding a series of small CSS projects within the United States.