New material enables more energy-efficient CO2 recovery
Research is being conducted worldwide into technologies to separate CO2 molecules from the atmosphere and from exhaust gas streams. ZHAW researchers have developed a new hybrid material with which CO2 can be recovered at lower temperatures.
Recovering carbon dioxide from the air is one means of combating climate change. The process is simple in principle: the ambient air drawn in flows through a type of filter coated with CO2-absorbing material. The material absorbs the CO2 molecules. Once it is fully loaded, it is heated. This causes the molecules to dissolve - the material regenerates. The CO2 obtained in this way can be stored for thousands of years in suitable basalt rock or even used commercially. Researchers at the ZHAW Institute of Materials and Process Engineering (IMPE) have now discovered that this separation of CO2 molecules is possible at significantly lower temperatures and thus more energy-efficiently than previously assumed using a newly developed hybrid material.
Regeneration temperature strongly reduced
The researchers call their newly created hybrid material of polyethylenimine and ionic liquid "IMPE-Cap." Using a spectroscopic technique, the researchers were able to show that IMPE-Cap weakens the chemical bond between CO2 and the material surface. In the lab, the CO2 dissolved at just 50 degrees Celsius. "Currently available filters have to be heated to around 80 to 100 degrees Celsius to separate the CO2 molecules," says ZHAW researcher Daniel Matthias Meier, head of the Process Engineering Laboratory at IMPE.
Previously underestimated potential
"The energy-saving potential in this process is large and has been underestimated," says ZHAW researcher Nobutaka Maeda. IMPE-Cap has the potential for industrial applications to save energy and reduce operating costs for CO2 capture from the atmosphere or from exhaust gases from power plants and factories, he adds. Incidentally, the horizon of applications for these filtered-out molecules is broad: from the production of plant fertilizers to coolants and synthetic fuels, many things are possible.
Press release ZHAW
