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New Material Can Selectively Capture CO2

Posted by Soulskill on from the who-needs-plants-anyway dept.

Socguy brings us a story from CBC News about a recently developed crystal that can soak up carbon dioxide gas "like a sponge." Chemists from UCLA believe that the crystals will become a cheap, stable method to absorb emissions at power plants. We discussed a prototype for another CO2 extraction device last year. Quoting: "'The technical challenge of selectively removing carbon dioxide has been overcome,' said UCLA chemistry professor Omar Yaghi in a statement. The porous structures can be heated to high temperatures without decomposing and can be boiled in water or solvents for a week and remain stable, making them suitable for use in hot, energy-producing environments like power plants. The highly porous crystals also had what the researchers called 'extraordinary capacity for storing CO2': one litre of the crystals could store about 83 litres of CO2."

3 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. I already have a CO2 storage device by bhodikhan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I use another CO2 storage technology in my house already. It's called WOOD. Doesn't have any patents tied to it and the more we plant, cut up and build with, the more CO2 we will remove from the atmosphere. Sure there might be a more high tech solution with a higher yield but planting trees and using them also produces oxygen as well. Nice idea but it's been done before. Way before.

    1. Re:I already have a CO2 storage device by itsdapead · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I use another CO2 storage technology in my house already. It's called WOOD.

      Hopefully sourced from any trees which were cut down to make space for your house...?

      But seriously, the other neat trick is that even if you cut down the wood and burn it for power, you're only putting back the CO2 which the tree took out - not releasing carbon that has been safely out of the equation for millions of years.

      Sadly, though, it looks like the idea of biofuels is going to get discredited by the lamebrained alcohol-from-corn debacle.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  2. Re:Solution without a Problem by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    CO2 is a lagging indicator of global warming, not a catalyst for it.

    * [Citation Needed]