Scientists Invent a Sponge That Soaks Up Carbon From Coal-Fired Power PlantsTakepart.com
By Kristine Wong | 18 hours ago
A brown, spongelike material could be the next weapon against climate change.
Scientists believe the substance made from a polymer could be more effective than other devices used to capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. It also could help convert fossil fuels into hydrogen, a source of clean energy.
“The key point is that this polymer is stable, it’s cheap, and it adsorbs CO2 extremely well,” said Andrew Cooper, a professor at the University of Liverpool who is presenting his research at this week’s American Chemical Society meeting.
Here’s how it works. When carbon is sucked into the sponge, the material swells—just like a real sponge gets bigger after absorbing liquid. Once the pressure drops, the sponge releases the carbon to be collected for storage or converted into gases, such as hydrogen.
“The main difference is that the material swells in CO2, whereas other porous solids do not,” Cooper said. “This gives rise to the high CO2 adsorption capacity.”
Cooper envisions the sponge will be a key component in a technology called integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), which transforms fossil fuels into a mixture of gases, including clean-burning hydrogen. That hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to power cars and buildings.
But IGCC also produces carbon dioxide, which has to be captured somehow. That’s where the sponge comes in. Cooper said the material is ideal since it can work well under the high-pressure IGCC process.
The researcher was inspired by polystyrene, a material found in Styrofoam. Polystyrene can also absorb in CO2 when it swells.
“The main challenge was to identify a material that had high CO2 capacity in the presence of water and which was, in principle, inexpensive,” Cooper said.
Yet for all its promise, it’s not clear at this point how carbon sponges would be commercialized. That’s “still to be determined,” said Cooper.
http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-invent-sponge-soaks-carbon-coal-fired-power-183422058.html---
Good luck with converting carbon into gases such as hydrogen...
