The next big carbon-capture breakthrough might ironically come from a lab full of Boilermakers.
That's because a team from Purdue University in Indiana is working on groundbreaking technology that negates harmful air pollution straight from the stack.
If successful, agricultural and biological engineering doctoral candidate Antonio Esquivel-Puentes told The Cool Down that it could negate up to 85-90% or more of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from cement-making facilities, power plants, and even shipping vessels and vehicles.
It's part of the way Esquivel-Puentes thinks we can eliminate much of the pollution generated from the dirty fuel-burning era's waning years.
However, the expert said it could still be a stretch before the switchover to renewable energy is complete. So the remaining heat-trapping fumes need to be dealt with now, he said, before they hit the atmosphere and become a bane to the planet and human health.
"The effects of pollution we have today will have inertia … consequences through time," he said.
It all starts at Purdue with cement manufacturing, widely reported in the news and academia as producing around 8% of the world's carbon dioxide pollution. Cutting that number in half could result in a big win for the planet, impacting the health of millions of people, according to a university lab report.
The Purdue process uses liquid filters saturated with hydroxides to react with carbon dioxide, forming carbonates. The new compounds fall to the bottom, where they can be pulled out and reused in cement-making. The cleaned air is released, and the water can be reused in the filter, according to the lab report.
"We identified that we can achieve a circular process," Esquivel-Puentes said.
The team started work on a 4.7-liter tabletop prototype in 2022, which is now complete. But now the researchers need to scale it up, improving the chemical reaction speed and developing a cost-effective size and weight along the way.
The goal is to partner with a cement producer — and Esquivel-Puentes said a collaboration is in the works — to pilot a simulation project on a commercial scale. An operation of that size could cost a couple million dollars to get up and running, according to the expert.
If successful, he estimates that it would require 40% less energy than other remediation processes, with some other perks.
"We can provide savings to the big companies," Esquivel-Puentes said.
In part, the value would be realized by eliminating the need to mine for calcium carbonates, which can be rescued from the filter and reused in cement production. The researchers have disclosed the innovation to the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization, which has applied for a utility patent through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect their intellectual property.
Other efforts in this field have sizable backers. The U.S. government is investing $1.2 billion into a plan to essentially vacuum air pollution from the atmosphere, pumping it underground for safe storage. In Texas, Bill Gates is backing technology that captures carbon dioxide from dirty fuel-based operations to help make syngas. And a South African Nestlé plant is turning air pollution into baking soda.
"Researchers around the world are working on technologies to capture CO2 from the atmosphere," Mirian Velay-Lizancos, Purdue assistant professor of civil engineering, said in the press release. "It's our hope that this technology will lead to a more sustainable future for all of us."
The Boilermakers envision their tech going beyond the $406 billion global cement industry. The team is also targeting the shipping industry, which generates around 3% of global air pollution. While shipbuilders are starting to explore new versions of sail technology, most vessels still use large dirty fuel-burning engines.
"Those diesel engines are massive," Esquivel-Puentes said, "like a building size."
If they can figure out how to achieve fast chemical reactions in a reasonably sized unit, the applications go even further. There's potential for the filters to one day work in tandem with catalytic converters on vehicles to reduce air pollution even more.
You can take action on that front now. Reducing idling and planning faster routes can help you immediately cut gas use and save cash. Switching to an electric vehicle can eliminate thousands of pounds of pollution a year, saving up to $1,500 on gas and maintenance costs.
In the meantime, Esquivel-Puentes envisions the patented Purdue tech becoming a spinoff company. The team is also researching how to add ultraviolet light and other modifications that can eliminate additional types of pollutants.
"Since we see the energy transition is going to take five, 10, 20 years, we need to produce a near-future solution," he said.
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