A research team found a way to radically improve the technology that sucks planet-heating carbon gas straight out of the air, TechXplore relayed.
Many carbon capture initiatives are not the best use of funds. For years, however, scientists have been developing a promising method to reduce harmful air pollution by binding carbon molecules in the air to a liquid or a solid compound.
The mixture is then usually heated up to extreme temperatures to break the carbon bonds away, capture the gas, and reset the chemicals for another round, TechXplore explained.
Known as Direct Air Capture, this process relies on the right chemical to selectively bind to airborne carbon. One option is solid amines, a natural group of compounds that can also be synthetically made.
However, there is a major roadblock to high performance: Amines are weakened at high temperatures and get easily damaged during DAC's intense heating step.
That's where a team from the Korea Institute of Energy Research has changed the game. It developed a new amine-based compound with a special additive that weakens the absorbent's carbon bonding and protects it from heat damage.
The team's solution proved its worth when it successfully captured a kilogram of carbon gas from the air per day — and recovered it with 96.5% purity — over the course of a 350-hour-long demonstration. The feat was the first of its kind in Korea, where carbon gas reached a concentration of 427 parts per million in 2023, according to the information on TechXplore.
The breakthrough expands the possibilities of using amines in DAC, which is good news for the entire planet. The less carbon gas out there heating up the atmosphere, the more our ecosystems are able to stay healthy and stable.
Other nature-based techniques to remove carbon from the air, such as planting trees and protecting soil health, are just as viable — and less expensive.
As TechXplore relayed, the KIER team plans to aggressively ramp up the process to capture 10 kilograms of carbon per day, followed by 200 kilograms per day. It aims to get the product on the market by 2030 and believes it can build a facility capable of capturing more than 1,000 tons per year by 2035.
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Yes — always 💯 "With this technology, we have taken the first step toward a solution that could ultimately reduce millions of tons of carbon dioxide annually," lead researcher Dr. Young Cheol Park said, per the information on TechXplore.
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