Tech Briefs Magazine - August 2024 - 30

" Not only have we doubled the number
of ions that exhibit the desired humidity-dependent
carbon capture, we have also
discovered the highest-performing systems
yet, " co-first author John Hegarty said.
In recent years, moisture-swing capture
has taken off. Traditional carbon
capture methods use sorbents to capture
CO2 at point-of-source locations, and
then use heat or generated vacuums to
release CO2 from the sorbent. It comes
with a high-energy cost.
" Traditional
carbon capture holds
Ambient carbon capture, or " direct air capture, " can take carbon out of typical environmental conditions
and serves as one weapon in the battle against climate change, particularly as reliance on
fossil fuels begins to decrease. (Image: news.northwestern.edu)
rates innovative kinetic methodologies
and a diversity of ions, enabling carbon
removal from virtually anywhere. The
study was published in the journal Environmental
Science and Technology.
" We are not only expanding and optimizing
the choice of ions for carbon
capture, but also helping unravel the
fundamental underpinnings of complex
fluid-surface interactions, " said Senior
Author Vinayak P. Dravid. " This work
advances our collective understanding
of DAC, and our data and analyses provide
a strong impetus to the community,
for theorists and experimentalists alike,
to further improve carbon capture under
practical conditions. "
Co-First Author Benjamin Shindel said
the idea behind the paper came from a desire
to use ambient environmental conditions
to facilitate the reaction.
" We liked moisture-swing carbon capture
because it doesn't have a defined
energy cost, " Shindel said. " Even though
there's some amount of energy required
to humidify a volume of air, ideally you
could get humidity 'for free,' energetically,
by relying on an environment that
has natural dry and wet reservoirs of air
close together. "
onto CO2 tightly, which means it takes
significant energy to release it and reuse
it, " Hegarty said.
It also doesn't work everywhere, Shindel
said. Agriculture, concrete, and steel
manufacturers, for example, are major
contributors to emissions but take up
large footprints that make it impossible to
capture carbon at a single source.
" DAC is a complex and multifaceted
problem that requires an interdisciplinary
approach, " Senior Author Omar Farha
said. " What I appreciate about this
work is the detailed and careful measurements
of complex parameters. Any proposed
mechanism must explain these
intricate observations. "
The team believes that future experiments,
coupled with computational modeling,
will help better explain why certain
ions are more effective than others.
Dravid's team plans to integrate such
CO2 capturing materials with their earlier
porous sponge platform, which has
been developed to remove environmental
toxins including oil, phosphates, and
microplastics.
For more information, contact Northwestern
media relations at news@
northwestern.edu; 847-491-5001.
Mimicking 'Plant Power' through Artificial Photosynthesis
A new process to produce methane could help pave the way toward replacing nonrenewable
fossil fuels.
American Chemical Society, Washington D.C
S
30
olar panels are an increasingly popular
way to generate electricity from the
sun's energy. Although humans are still figuring
out how to reliably turn that energy
into fuel, plants have been doing it for
eons through photosynthesis. Now, a team
reporting in ACS Engineering Au has mimicked
the process to produce methane, an
energy-dense fuel, from carbon dioxide,
water and sunlight. Their prototype system
could help pave the way toward replacing
nonrenewable fossil fuels.
Although methane is a potent greenhouse
gas, it's also a highly energy-dense
fuel and the main component of natural
gas. Fossil fuels, including natural gas,
take millions of years to form, and extracting
them from the environment can have
detrimental effects. Finding methods to
produce methane from renewable sourcwww.techbriefs.com
es
of energy could help reduce the need
for nonrenewable fossil fuels over time.
One source of sustainable, abundant
energy provided to Earth daily is the
sun. Humans have tried tapping into
this resource with solar panels, but
plants already have it figured out, using
sunlight to power photosynthesis and
convert CO2 and water into oxygen and
sugars to use as fuel later.
Tech Briefs, August 2024

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Tech Briefs Magazine - August 2024

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