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New Plastic to Cut CO2 Emissions and Purify Water

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the green-plastic dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers have lots of imagination. After developing plastic as solid as steel, other scientists from in Australia, Korea and in the U.S. have created a plastic which could cut CO2 emissions and purify water. Their new material mimics pores found in plants and is exceptionally efficient. As said one of the lead researchers, 'it can separate carbon dioxide from natural gas a few hundred times faster than current plastic membranes and its performance is four times better in terms of purity of the separated gas.' Now it remains to be seen if commercial companies are interested, either for water desalination or for natural gas processing plants."

6 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Esculation of promises by jfengel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just wait. This is Slashdot, where there's at least a vague hope of somebody understanding a bit of science. By the time this hits the regular papers it will be "cuts".

  2. Essentially a plastic version of a plant membrane by bomanbot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well I read TFA and the concept behind that plastic is deceptively simple: It is a membrane consisting of hourglass-shaped pores, which seemingly is a very efficient shape for pores and is also used in plant cell membranes.

    So in essence, this plastic is a plant membrane in plastic form, which is not a radically advanced concept, but a really clever one and if it works as advertised, kudos to the research teams.

  3. What I want to know is ... by DivineGod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... will the CO2 emission from producing the plastic be worth the amount saved by using it?

  4. Copying Nature by lloy0076 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, those who innovate turn once again to Parental Nature for inspiration; not entirely surprising seeing Parental Nature either has:

    • Millions of years of evolution to get it right; or
    • A supremely Intelligent Designer

    I just hope enough of Parental Nature is around the place for long enough before we lose the wealth of knowledge and technology which we can copy.

  5. purify things other than water by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would like to see a plastic that can purify ethanol, instead of using the extremely inefficient method of boiling to distill the ethanol. All that boiling is one of the big reasons ethanol is impractical in the US. (we don't have the climate for sugarcane)

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  6. Then What? by headhot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What happens to the plastic membrane after it absorbs the CO2? Does it get recycled? thrown out? Burned?