Scientists Proposes More Efficient Way to Capture Carbon From the Atmosphere

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have created a new technique that might lead to more efficient and cost-effective solutions for extracting heat-trapping gases from the environment and turning them into useful compounds such as fuel or construction materials.

Such carbon sequestration technology may be required on a large scale in order to restrict global warming this century to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) over pre-industrial levels and avoid the disastrous effects of global climate change.

The 'Holy Grail' of capturing carbon dioxide

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The approach forecasts the strength of the link between carbon dioxide and the molecule that retains it, referred to as a binder, as per ScienceDaily.

This electrochemical diagnostic can simply applied to any molecule that is chemically predisposed to interact with carbon dioxide, allowing researchers to find appropriate molecular candidates for carbon dioxide capture from ordinary air.

Oana Luca, co-author of the current work and assistant professor of chemistry said that "The Holy Grail, if you will, is to attempt to inch toward being able to employ binders that can take carbon dioxide from the air, not only concentrated sources."

Understanding the strength of bonds helps us to predict whether the bonding will be good or bad, and it allows us to identify potential for future research into direct carbon sequestration from diluted resources.

Carbon sequestration and storage technology's purpose is to extract co2 from the atmosphere and safely store it for hundreds or thousands of years.

However, while being in use in the United States since the 1970s, it presently absorbs and stores just 0.1 percent of global carbon emissions yearly. Carbon capture will have to significantly scale up by 2050 to assist reach the IPCC's carbon emission objectives.

Creating such chemical bonds

Chemistry is founded on a couple fundamental facts: first, that molecules are formed of atoms, and second, that electrons circle them.

When atoms link with other atoms, molecules form. When atoms are linked electrons with one another, they make up what is known as a covalent connection.

The scientists can trigger these connections with electricity by using an electrode to give an electron to a molecule.

When that is done to an imidazolium molecule, as in this research, a hydrogen atom is eliminated, leaving a space in a carbonyl group for another molecule, such as carbon dioxide, to connect with.

Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is the type of molecule that dislikes forming new connections.

Capturing carbon dioxide through smokestacks

Last 2013, MIT researchers devised a method to get the amine solution to emit carbon dioxide without heating it.

They put it through a gadget that looks like a battery and has copper positive and negative electrodes.

However, instead of generating power, it utilizes electricity to renew amines.

Once an amine solution has absorbed carbon dioxide, it is pushed to one electrode. When electricity is delivered to the electrode, copper ions are produced.

The copper ions bond to the amines more firmly than the carbon dioxide, displacing it and causing it to bubble off.

After that, the copper-amine solution is pushed to the opposite electrode, where it is eliminated. The amines can then be employed to collect even more CO2.