New method removes CO2 from the air with less energy
Published: Friday, Jan 12th 2024, 10:30
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Researchers can use light to remove CO2 from the atmosphere in a new process. The process developed by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) is not yet ready for use, as detailed in a press release issued by the university on Tuesday.
However, in a study published in the American Chemical Society's journal "Chemistry of Materials", the researchers proved that their method works - at least in the laboratory.
In the new process, air is passed through a liquid. When the liquid is irradiated with light, the greenhouse gas CO2 is released again. As with a Coke bottle, the CO2 bubbles out of the liquid and can be collected in gas tanks, as explained by ETH Zurich in the press release.
No heating energy
Compared to currently available technologies for capturing CO2, this process has the advantage of requiring much less energy. Conventional CO2 capture technologies work with temperature or pressure differences. One established method, for example, works with filters to which CO2 molecules stick. To detach these molecules from the filters, they have to be heated to 100 degrees, according to the university.
"With our method, on the other hand, we don't need to heat and cool. This explains why our method requires much less energy," explained study leader Maria Lukatskaya.
Acid switch for the liquid
The researchers took advantage of the fact that CO2 occurs in different forms depending on the acidity of a liquid. In soap-like, so-called alkaline liquids, CO2 becomes a carbonic acid salt. In acidic liquids, it is present as CO2 gas.
For the new process, the researchers built a kind of light-controlled acid switch. They added so-called photoacids to the liquid. These are molecules that react to light. If such a liquid is irradiated with light, it becomes acidic. If the liquid is now irradiated with light, the CO2 begins to bubble. According to the researchers, the new process still needs to be optimized before it can be used.
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