This Yellow Powder Removes Carbon Dioxide From The Atmosphere
The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been increasing steadily over the years, causing intense wildfires, hurricanes, floods, droughts, and extreme heat.
Of course, there have been efforts to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, but some scientists are also looking for ways to remove the excess carbon dioxide.
“You have to take CO2 from the air—there’s no way around it,” said Omar Yaghi, a chemist at UC Berkeley. “Even if we stop emitting CO2, we still need to take it out of the air. We don’t have any other options.”
Yaghi and his research team have developed a new material that could execute this task with success. And perhaps it can even be used in industrial facilities sometime in the next few years.
The material looks like a yellow powder, but under a microscope, it looks like tiny basketballs with billions of even tinier holes.
The powder has a hexagonal structure made of carbon and nitrogen. It is held together by covalent bonds. It is called COF-999.
When air flows through the material, most components pass through, but compounds within the framework, known as amines, seize acidic molecules of carbon dioxide.
The team has been researching covalent organic frameworks for about 20 years. Their results have shown that COF-999 does exceptionally well at absorbing carbon dioxide.
For one experiment, they filled a tube with the material and placed the tube outside. Then, they measured the concentrations of carbon dioxide after air passed through. The exiting air did not contain any of the greenhouse gas.
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According to Zihui Zhou, the lead author of the study and a materials chemist at UC Berkeley, just 200 grams of COF-999, or under half a pound, can absorb up to 44 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. A large tree absorbs that same amount.
“There’s nothing like it out there in terms of performance,” said Yaghi. “It breaks new ground in our efforts to address the climate problem.”
Furthermore, COF-999 can release carbon dioxide after absorbing the molecules. Usually, engineers have to heat traditional material to make it release absorbed carbon dioxide after it removes the gas from the atmosphere. Later, the gas is used for industrial purposes or confined in geologic reservoirs deep underground.
The process of heating up material is costly and takes up a lot of energy since it must reach high temperatures. Meanwhile, COF-999 releases its reserves at only 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more than 100 degrees cooler than the traditional materials that are currently being used.
It can even endure over 100 cycles of absorbing and releasing carbon dioxide without losing its effectiveness. COF-999 has not yet been tested in real-life situations, so some experts warn against getting too excited about it.
Regardless, scientists will continue creating new carbon capture technologies to try to stave off human impact on the planet.
The study was reported in the journal Nature.
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