Japanese Carbon Capture Method Is 99% Efficient And 2X As Fast

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A research team led by Professor Seiji Yamazoe of Tokyo Metropolitan University (TMU) has developed a new direct air capture method to capture carbon dioxide. According to a press release from Eureka Alert, it works with 99% efficiency.

The world is transitioning to cleaner energy sources. The transition is prolong, however, and as it completes over the next few decades, more tons of carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change. Many strategies are used to contain the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, with direct air capture (DAC) being one-of-them.

Direct Air Capture of CO2

With this method of carbon capture, carbon dioxide is extracted directly from the air. The captured carbon can be stored in deep geological formations or used in various human activities such as food processing or making synthetic fuels, says the International Energy Agency (IEA) says on its website.

There are 2 main approaches to doing this. One is called liquid DAC, where air passed through liquid system, where a chemical reaction takes place between a liquid solution & carbon dioxide is trapped in the solution.

The other could be a solid DAC that uses solid sorbent filters that react with the CO2 & bind them the has to them. Both systems are reversible, that means the trapped carbon dioxide can be released by using high temperatures when needed and the systems can be reused.

Advancements the carbon capture

The main disadvantage of CO2 capture systems is their lack of efficiency. Although large-scale carbon capture systems are currently being built or put in-to place to trap carbon, the systems lose efficiency as they trap carbon and are marred by high gas recovery costs.

Yamazoe’s team at TMU has been working on a solid-liquid phase separation system to capture carbon. The system works like a liquid DAC, where gas is bubbled through a liquid solution. However, instead of being trapped in solution, the chemical reaction takes place, so that trapped carbon is insoluble and comes out of solution as a solid.

The TMU researchers have focused on using liquid amine compounds for their work, press release said, and they have been tinkered with their structures to improve the speed & efficiency of the reaction.

With a compound called isophorone diamine (IPDA), the researchers achieved efficiencies of 99% when working with carbon concentrations of 40 ppm (parts per million), according to the press release. The researchers claim that the trapped carbon was precipitated as carbamic acid and rate of this reaction is twice as fast as leading DAC systems around the world.

Carbon capture is easy in this system, but carbon release is just as easy. The precipitation only needs to be heated to 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) for the cO2 to re-covered. The recovered liquid can be reused in carbon trapping process.

This can have broad-ramifications for large-scale carbon capture systems that could be installed around the world. The research was published in the journal ACS Environmental Au.