Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are at an all-time high, in 2018 we jumped from 300 parts per million (ppm) to over 400 ppm. Now, scientists have been trying to figure out how they can capture CO2 from the air to help us all to slow or reverse the effects of global warming and climate change.
A team of scientists led by Professor Liyuan Deng, at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), is conducting studies on membranes that could help filter the air. “The results are first and foremost important in terms of climate change,” says professor Deng, from the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Power plants that burn a lot of fossil fuels are required to have a special membrane to try to filter out some of the CO2 that enters our atmosphere. The membranes need to be both permeable for CO2 and also separate the CO2 from the other gases, like nitrogen.
“We didn’t think this membrane material was going to be suitable,” says Deng.
The team’s initial results with the membrane proved to be unsuccessful. They were unable to capture much of anything, but then they put the membrane in water. Once the membrane dried out, CO2 was able to penetrate the membrane and filter out more nitrogen.
NPG Asia Materials recently published an article on the NTNU research, which stated that:
these nanostructured membranes constitute promising candidates for gas separation technologies aimed at CO2 capture.
The membrane is a form of polymer which is cost-efficient and easy to produce. They are also durable and researchers regard them as promising candidates for separating gases on a large scale.
This particular polymer is named poly[tert-butylstyrene-b-(ethylene-alt-propylene)-b-(styrene-r-styrenesulfonate)-b-(ethylene-alt-propylene)-b–tert-butylstyrene]. It’s known as TESET for short, and it is currently in use commercially so it’s readily available.
“The company holding the patent is interested in this new field of application,” says Deng. NTNU is home to the only Membrane Research Laboratory in Norway, and currently are the only scientists in the country researching polymers that can filter CO2 from the atmosphere.
Next up, the team is working on using different materials including graphene oxide, which is the thinnest, strongest material in the world. Graphene is being heavily studied by scientists around the world because its properties make it useful for so many different things. One of graphene’s beneficial properties is its unique ability to filter materials, water can evaporate through graphene but most other gases and liquids cannot.
This research project is part of Horizon 2020, which is the EU’s Framework program for research and innovation. Trondheim laboratory is open to researchers from around the world, after receiving permission from the EU ECCSEL they are free to carry out experiments and work on projects.
