{"id":48512,"date":"2024-11-25T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/?post_type=news&p=48512"},"modified":"2024-11-25T09:00:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T14:00:41","slug":"electrifying-solution-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/electrifying-solution-to-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Electrifying Solution to Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team led by a Johns Hopkins doctoral candidate has developed a new technique using electricity to drive a chemical process that removes climate-damaging carbon dioxide from the air. They describe their approach, which unlike many previous electrochemical carbon capture methods operates in the presence of oxygen, in\u00a0<\/span>Nature Energy.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Andong Liu<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cCarbon capture technologies that use thermal chemistry are well developed and some have already been commercialized, but those methods are pretty energy consuming. When your method for capturing carbon is driven by electricity, you don\u2019t use nearly as much energy,\u201d said study leader Andong Liu, who worked with colleagues at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and California Institute of Technology on the research. \u201cHowever, there have also been some limitations of the existing electricity-driven carbon capture systems that our method has managed to nullify, which is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 carbon capture system works like a sponge that can be turned on and off using electricity. It consists of two parts. The first\u2014and main part\u2014consists of a flow cell with carbon paper electrodes and a Nafion membrane, which is a membrane that is used to selectively transport cations (positively charged ions) while preventing electron conduction. The Nafion membrane is sandwiched between the cathode and anode, which receive and release electrons during an electrochemical reaction.<\/p>\n

The second part is the carbon dioxide sorbent system, comprising two liquid tanks containing two chemical solutions\u2014a catholyte and an anolyte\u2014 that are continuously circuited through the flow cell by a pump. The cathode electrolyte is a mixture of azobenzene, butanol, and supporting salt, which is used to capture carbon dioxide. While the anolyte is a mixture of ferrocene and supporting salt to balance the electrons of the system. There is also a carbon dioxide sensor that records the concentration changes during carbon capture and release.<\/p>\n

When an electric current is applied, the system turns on, triggering the organic molecules in the catholyte to grab carbon dioxide from the feed streams, like air or flue gas.<\/p>\n

Liu said the system improves upon one of the major flaws of many previous carbon capture technologies that rely on electrochemistry, which is the sensitivity of the sorbents towards oxygen in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn traditional electrochemical carbon capture methods, the molecules used can break down when they contact oxygen,\u201d Liu said. \u201cOur new method uses a form of alcohol to stabilize those molecules, which makes the system more efficient and less prone to oxygen damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the system has only been tested in a lab, Liu believes it has the potential to be scaled for use in dry climates because it doesn\u2019t rely on the use of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought is you could build a larger version of what we have in the lab and put it near factories in dryer climate to capture the carbon they\u2019re emitting,\u201d Liu said. \u201cThese areas have struggled to utilize carbon capture technologies because of how essential water is to them. Our method could change that, which would really help in the fight against climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the co-authors of the study is\u00a0<\/span>Yayuan Liu<\/a>, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and associate faculty member with the\u00a0<\/span>Ralph O\u2019Connor Sustainable Energy Institute<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(ROSEI).<\/p>\n

This story was originally posted by the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-48512","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-phd","news_categories-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nElectrifying Solution to Climate Change - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/electrifying-solution-to-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Electrifying Solution to Climate Change - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A team led by a Johns Hopkins doctoral candidate has developed a new technique using electricity to drive a chemical process that removes climate-damaging carbon dioxide from the air. They…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/electrifying-solution-to-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Electrifying Solution to Climate Change - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/electrifying-solution-to-climate-change\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Electrifying Solution to Climate Change - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","og_description":"A team led by a Johns Hopkins doctoral candidate has developed a new technique using electricity to drive a chemical process that removes climate-damaging carbon dioxide from the air. 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