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Scientists in the US claim to have found a cheaper and easier
way to remove carbon dioxide from industrial smokestacks,
cars and domestic heaters, which account for around half of
total manmade CO2 emissions.
A paper
published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society
claims to show the highest carbon dioxide removal rates ever
reported for the type of humid air that can pose difficulties
for other CCS technologies.
Researchers claim that using solid materials based on polyethylenimine,
a readily available and inexpensive polymeric material, may
overcome the huge cost problems that have limited deployment
of carbon capture technology to-date.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that, by
2035, there will have to be 1,500 large-scale projects around
the world to keep global temperature rise below 2șC this century
- but, so far, deployment of the technology has been hampered
by technical and cost concerns.
In tests, the researchers at the University of Southern California,
including chemistry Nobel Laureate George Olah, found that
the new polymer offers a cost effective means of capturing
relatively large quantities of CO2.
The trials also demonstrated that the material can be recycled
and reused many times over without losing efficiency, paving
the way for the captured CO2 to be reused
to make other substances.
The paper says the polymer could be useful in closed environments
such as submarines, or deployed to capture CO2
from smokestacks. It adds that the process could also be used
out in the open atmosphere, where it could clean up carbon
dioxide pollution from small point sources such as cars or
home heaters.
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