GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor Vol. 10 No. 7
Visit Archives | Return to Issue
PDF
GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor
Article 11 of 12
February 13, 2015

Researchers Develop Microcapsule Based CO2 Capture Method

By Abby Harvey

Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
2/13/2015

Carbon can be efficiently captured from flue gas using microcapsules consisting of a sodium carbonate solution encased in a highly permeable polymer shell, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Harvard University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced in a new report published late last week in the journal Nature Communications.  “We have demonstrated a new class of hybrid liquid/solid materials that are highly permeable, mechanically robust, chemically stable and environmentally benign,” the report says. “Our encapsulation scheme enables the use of liquid sorbents with more favourable thermodynamics and lower environmental impact than MEA by improving mass transfer rates, containing precipitates, and isolating degradation products. A system based on concentrated sodium carbonate slurry can be run with less parasitic heating and evaporation of water than conventional amine systems and will not release toxic volatile organic compounds. Hence, microencapsulated carbon sorbents offer a promising approach for large-scale carbon capture from power plants that is both safer and more energy efficient than current alternatives.”

The new process has various advantages over conventional methods such as amine based capture, including increased absorption, the researchers said. “It’s all about surface area,” said Roger Aines, one of the Lawrence Livermore team members in a Lawrence Livermore press release. “The capsules force the baking soda to stay in little tiny droplets (an order of magnitude smaller than a drop of amines would take on), and little drops react faster because they contact more of the CO2.”

Further, the microcapsules are easier on equipment, Aines said. “Our method is a huge improvement in terms of environmental impacts because we are able to use simple baking soda — present in every kitchen — as the active chemical. … Corrosiveness also is improved because the chemical is more benign and always is encapsulated. Putting the carbonate solution inside of the capsules allows it to be used for CO2 capture without making direct contact with the surface of equipment in the power plant, as well as being able to move it between absorption and release towers easily, even when it absorbs so much CO2 that it solidifies.”

Comments are closed.

Partner Content
Social Feed

NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.



by @BenjaminSWeiss, confirming today's reports with warrant from Las Vegas Metro PD.

Waste has been Emplaced! 🚮

We have finally begun emplacing defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of #WIPP.

Read more about the waste emplacement here: https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20221123-2.asp

Load More