A group of scientists led by Prof. Seiji Yamazoe from Tokyo Metropolitan University has created a new direct air capture technique that can stop carbon. A Eureka Alert press release says it can work at 99 percent efficiency.
The world is transforming into more sustainable sources of energy. But the process is long-lasting, and when it is completed in the next couple of years, tones of carbon dioxide will already be released into our atmospheres, accelerating climate change. To counter that, many projects and strategies are being implemented, Direct Air Capture of Carbine being one.
Direct Air Capture of carbon dioxide
In this carbon capture process, carbon dioxide gets extracted from the atmosphere. Carbon captured can be stored in deep geological formations or utilized in various human activities, such as food processing or the manufacture of synthetic fuels, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) declares in its site.
There are two primary methods to accomplish this. The first is the liquid D.A.C., where air passes through liquid systems. There is a chemical reaction that occurs between the liquid solution and carbon dioxide that is trapped within the solution.
Another method is solid D.A.C., which uses solid sorbent filters interacting with carbon dioxide and connecting them. Both systems are reversible, meaning carbon dioxide trapped is released at high temperatures if needed, and the methods can be used again.
Innovations in carbon capture
The main drawback to carbon capture devices is their inefficiency. Although massive-scale systems are being constructed or put in place to capture carbon, they are losing effectiveness because they trap carbon and are hampered by the high cost of recovering carbon.
The Yamazoe team at T.M.U. is working on a liquid-solid separation system that captures carbon. It functions as a liquid D.A.C. in which the gas bubbles up through a liquid. But, instead of being stuck in the solution, the chemical reaction takes place to cause the carbon that is trapped to be insoluble and emerges out of the solution as solid.
T.M.U. Researchers have been focusing on the use of liquid amine compounds in their research as per the press release and have been playing on their structures to increase the speed and effectiveness of the process.
Using a chemical called Isophorone Diamine (I.P.D.A.), the researchers have achieved an efficiency of 99 percent employing carbon at 40 ppm (parts per million), as the press release states. Researchers claim that the carbon trapped in the system precipitated out as carbamic acids, and the speed at which this process takes place is two times faster than the leading D.A.C. systems in the world.
Carbon capture is simple in this system; however, the release is as easy. The residue must become heated at 140 degrees F (60 Celsius) for carbon dioxide reclaimed. The liquid that is recovered can be used to be used in the carbon trapping process.
The findings could have massive importance for large-scale carbon capture systems that could be implemented worldwide. The study is published in A.C.S. Environmental Au.
Source: Interesting Engineering
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