Engineers at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering & Applied Science have discovered a new, cheaper way to capture carbon utilizing water. “The group found that reducing water quantities in nanoconfinement could promote CO32- (carbonate) ions to hydrolyze H2O into a larger amount of OH- (hydroxide) ions. This discovery also led the team to find a new nanostructured CO2 sorbent (a material used to absorb or adsorb liquids or gases) that also binds CO2 spontaneously in ambient air when the surrounding is dry, while releasing it when exposed to moisture,” according to a university release.
The team has applied the method and found it to offer greater efficiency at far lower expense than separate systems, the release says.
“Current sorbent materials consume a great deal of energy, so our discovery could lead to cheaper and more efficient energy conservation absorbents. And if we can achieve negative carbon emission standards, then we will have invented a nanomaterial solution to a critical global challenge,” said Xi Chen, associate professor of earth and environmental engineering, in the press release. “With water as the trigger, our energy cost of the whole CO2 capture cycle is very small … and that makes grand-scale application very promising for the first time.”