Waste material can help to reduce power plant emissions

“The high CO2 adsorption, high selectivity, rapid kinetics and water tolerance, combined with the low cost and ease of large scale production from waste biomass, gives Starbons great potential.”James Clark, University of York

Scientists from the University of York in the UK have unveiled an innovative new green material for capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from power stations, as well as from chemical and other large scale manufacturing plants.

Starbons are made from waste biomass including food peelings and seaweed, and were discovered and first reported 10 years ago by the York Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence. As the scientists now report in a paper in Angewandte Chemie, these renewable materials offer a greener and more efficient and selective approach for reducing CO₂ emissions than existing commercial systems.

Current widespread methods for carbon capture, such as amine treating, utilize liquid solutions for the treatment of emissions from chemical plants and refineries. However, these methods are expensive to run and require a lot of input energy compared with a relatively low output.

The synthetic make-up of Starbons, which contain lots of pores, allows them to absorb up to 65% more CO₂ than these current methods. Starbons are also more selective in capturing CO₂ when mixed with nitrogen, with results showing a capture rate of 20:1 rather than 5:1, making them four times more selective than current methods.

In addition, Starbons retain their CO₂ absorption and selectivity in the presence of water, and have extremely fast rates of CO₂ absorption and desorption. Such enhanced abilities for carbon capture in a material that is sustainable and low-cost shows that it holds significant potential for helping to reduce emissions from many manufacturing plants and power stations in the UK and around the world.

“This work is of fundamental importance in overturning established wisdom associated with gas capture by solids,” said Michael North, professor of green chemistry at the University of York, and co-corresponding author of the paper. “It defies current accepted scientific understanding of the efficiency of carbon-capturing CO₂, and has the potential to be of significant commercial and governmental value in helping the UK meet its CO₂ emissions reduction promises.”

“The high CO₂ adsorption, high selectivity, rapid kinetics and water tolerance, combined with the low cost and ease of large scale production from waste biomass, gives Starbons great potential,” said James Clark, head of York’s Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, and the other co-corresponding author of the paper. “We hope to offer the product as a commercial capture agent for separating CO₂ from chemical or power station waste streams.”

This story is adapted from material from the University of York, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier. Link to original source.