A simple yellow powder designed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley may be the key to improving direct air capture's carbon removal capabilities, as detailed by the Los Angeles Times.
According to one of the research paper's first authors, Zihui Zhou, a little less than half a pound of the powdered material, which is called COF-999, is capable of removing 44 pounds of planet-warming carbon dioxide from the air, similar to a tree.
"It performs beautifully," Omar Yaghi, a reticular chemist at UC Berkeley and the study's senior author, shared in the report.
"Based on the stability and the behavior of the material right now, we think it will go to thousands of cycles," he added.
Today's carbon capture technology is most effective for concentrated sources, such as power plant exhaust, but most direct air capture systems are being employed in ambient air environments.
"Flue gas capture is a way to slow down climate change because you are trying not to release CO2 to the air. Direct air capture is a method to take us back to like it was 100 or more years ago," Zhou said in a press release.
The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is currently more than 420 parts per million, which is 50% higher than levels before the Industrial Revolution. Zhou expects that to increase to 500 parts per million or more before flue capture is perfected.
The research team had been experimenting with metal organic frameworks as a way to remove carbon from the air, but those broke down after hundreds of cycles. This led the team to explore covalent organic frameworks (COF). Both have rigid crystalline structures with regularly spaced internal pores that make it easy for gases to stick.
The discovery of the powdery yellow COF-999 seems to be a more promising tool to help reduce the quantity of CO2 from the atmosphere. The material requires lower temperatures to release the gas than other processes, and it can be held until the CO2 is ready to be sequestered or repurposed.
🗣️ Do you think America could ever go zero-waste?
🔘 Never 👎
🔘 Not anytime soon 📅
🔘 Maybe in some states 🇺🇸
🔘 Definitely 👍
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
"This COF has a strong chemically and thermally stable backbone, it requires less energy, and we have shown it can withstand 100 cycles with no loss of capacity. No other material has been shown to perform like that," Yaghi said. "It's basically the best material out there for direct air capture."
There is a generally accepted threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (or 34.5 degrees Fahrenheit) for maximum surface warming that countries that signed the Paris Agreement are trying to maintain or reduce, to keep the climate stable.
Reducing the use of atmosphere-polluting dirty fuels by pivoting to sustainable solar and wind energy are part of the equation, but methods like direct air capture, and even direct ocean capture, are necessary to hit these targets.
"You have to take CO2 from the air — there's no way around it," as Yaghi shared with the Los Angeles Times.
"Even if we stop emitting CO2, we still need to take it out of the air. We don't have any other options."
Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
