Researchers from the Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico have teamed up to develop a new liquid membrane that uses enzymes to capture carbon dioxide 100 times faster than traditional polymer-based CO2 capture membranes. The new substance, a “memzyme,” combines a silica-based membrane support and carbonic anhydrase to create a membrane 10 times thinner than a soap bubble.
“Membranes usually have either high flow rates without discriminating among molecules or high selectivity for a particular molecule and slow flow rates,” the Department of Energy laboratory said in a press release Thursday. Because the new memzyme is so thin and made of liquid, it has a much faster flow rate. The inclusion of the enzyme in the membrane makes it 10-100 times more selective for CO2 over nitrogen, according to the release.
The team is now working to optimize the technology for large-scale applications. “Together we developed a membrane that has both high selectivity and fast flux for CO2. With optimization for industry, the Memzyme could be the solution we’re looking for to make electricity both cheap and green,” Susan Rempe, a Sandia computational biophysicist, said in the release.
