From the ‘CO2 must be assimilated’ department comes this press release from CSIRO. I have to wonder if this is a ‘spongeworthy’ project.
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CSIRO scientists have created a ‘solar sponge’ which captures and then releases carbon dioxide using the power of natural sunlight – as published today in scientific journal Angewandte Chemie.
The breakthrough presents a new way to recycle CO2 emissions using renewable energy. The ‘sponge’ which is made from a new smart material called a MOF – metal organic framework – adsorbs carbon dioxide, but when exposed to sunlight, instantaneously releases it.
Known as dynamic photo-switching, this capture-and-release method is extremely energy efficient and only requires UV light to trigger the release of CO2 after it has been captured from the mixture of exhaust gases.
“This is an exciting development for carbon capture because concentrated solar energy can be used instead of further coal-based energy to drive the process.”
Dr Matthew Hill, CSIRO research scientist
Dr Matthew Hill, who was awarded a 2012 Eureka Prize for his MOF research and led the CSIRO group conducting this research, said: “The capture and release process can be compared to soaking up water with a sponge and then wringing it out. When UV light hits the material its structure bends and twists and stored gas is released.”
“This is an exciting development for carbon capture because concentrated solar energy can be used instead of further coal-based energy to drive the process,” he added.
The traditional process for carbon dioxide capture has been to use liquid absorbers such as amines to remove flue gases at a coal-fired power station before they are released into the atmosphere. They are then heated to release the CO2 which is then stored and can be re-used. This process can consume as a much as 30 per cent of a power plant’s production capacity.
MOFs absorb as much as a litre of nitrogen gas in just one gram of material. This is possible because MOFs have the surface area of a football field in just one gram, meaning that gases can be soaked up like a sponge to all of the internal surfaces within.
In their paper titled ‘Dynamic Photo-Switching in Metal Organic Frameworks as a Route to Low Energy Carbon Dioxide Capture and Release’ CSIRO researchers show that when exposed to concentrated UV light the MOF sponge instantaneously releases up to 64 per cent of absorbed CO2.
Lead researcher and author of the paper, Richelle Lyndon, who is also a Monash University student, said: “The MOFs are impregnated with light-responsive azobenzene molecules which react to UV light and trigger the release of CO2. It is this reaction, and the material’s ability to bend and flex, which makes the material we have created so unique.”
Read more media releases in our Media section.
This work was funded by the Science and Industry Endowment Fund [external link].
Dynamic Photo-Switching in Metal–Organic Frameworks as a Route to Low-Energy Carbon Dioxide Capture and Release [external link], abstract in Angewandte Chemie.
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I’ve been doing this for years. I use the concentrated sunlight to grow my leafy plants which absorb the carbon dioxide from coal based power stations anywhere in the world. When I want to release it again, I trigger the release of the CO2 with a match, having cut down the plants and allowed them to dry.
I call this biomass burning.
Beware, biomass burning is probably worse that coal burning for pollutants. Trees have a habit of taking up mercury from the soil and can also release dioxins when they are burnt.
It would be nice if it could soak up CO2 and then release Oxygen, sort of like a plant.
CO2 is not a problem.
Stupid people, pretending to do science, while conflating it with their religion du jour is the problem.
This technology is a solution, looking for a problem.
Tax dollars at work?
I cannot for the life of me see the point of this ‘research’.
So, when the sponge is full, where are they going to squeeze it out?
Pursing largely useless technology for a false purpose could be considered a waste of resources.
This technology might be useful in some other venues, but not for CO2 sequestration, as all efforts to do so are a waste of time and money.
perhaps they can release it in the greenhouses that pump their co2 levels up to a 1000+ppm.
freaking idiots.
Could find a use on submarines.
So you take the saturated sponge with you on vacation, and drop it into a jug of iced G&T on a hot sunny beach, and it keeps it fizzy or hours!
Brilliant invention.
Fake trees. Oh boy
Getting rid of that collected CO2? No problem. Think rocket ship. Sounds cost-effective to me.
The key phrase in the title is “…as a route to…”
Along with “towards” this is standard chemist-speak for: “this fails horribly, but we’ve done it and now we are to publish it regardless.”
Angew Chem is a proper chemistry journal, but the linked abstract doesn’t even contain a chemical description of what has been done, suggesting that “It’s worse than I thought.”
Just a thought
Imagine a catalytic converter that would remove C02 out of the exhaust gas….. do you think it would ever get allowed near a vehicle in the EU ?
It would get buried in the Brussels Bunker
Already there are catalysts for harvesting solar power to make fuel from CO2 and H2O. Their usefulness depends on how cheaply they can be manufactured and deployed. The techonology highlighted here does not seem to be as useful.
I wonder if the sponges can be tuned to absorb real pollutants.
SOx, NOx, etc. If there is a cheap enough way to eliminate them, it’ll get rid of a real negative externality of coal plants. And diesel engines.
WTF? Using expensive(?) materials to soak up CO2 just to release it again later? Where’s the benefit? Cheaper and “greener” to just release the “evil” stuff.
If the “sponge” were to be put in a smoke stack (or into the vessel from last night’s post on the Ohio State coal experiment) to conveniently store the CO2 to sell to the greenhouse industry as an easy way to boost CO2, the power plant could then make a profit off of what is now a waste stream. Might defray some of the fuel costs.
What happens to the 26% of captured CO2 that isn’t released when exposed to UV? Are these filters disposable?
“This is an exciting development for carbon capture because concentrated solar energy can be used instead of further coal-based energy to drive the process,” he added.
Yes but there is no scientific need for carbon capture in the first place. Only people in the climate carbon cult are worried about CO2 and their fears are baseless.
I have to agree with Paul Westhaver – this IS a solution looking for a problem. As to this comment –
vboring says:
February 21, 2013 at 9:57 am
I wonder if the sponges can be tuned to absorb real pollutants.
Are the real pollutants you were want to refer to, per chance , be climate crisis fools?
As a form of solar power that is carbon-neutral, where on the efficiency/yield/dollar curve does this fall? Is it better than a tree in this function, and less polluting? I can’t imagine creating these sponges is carbon neutral, btw, so at best unless they replace conventional energy sources they are carbon-positive.
I’m willing to pass on this one and the China fund it. Perhaps the UN could take it on and send the bill to China, in fact. In that regard we have a solution looking for a problem and problem looking for a solution finding each other in a happy marriage of green greed, and the UN will finally have started on the path to self-sustenance. With any excesses they can park a sentinel asteroid tug into a Lagrange node and use it to save the world (for a fee, of course).
Obigatory /sarc
We can load up the CO2 soaked sponges on a rocket, and hurl the whole thing at the sun.
Get ready for the shreiks to “save our star”.
After reading the last couple of CO2 related inventions here on WUWT this morning the thought that crossed my mind. How much really useful technology is NOT being invented because of all the time, money, resources and brain power that is being willfully diverted to idiotic ‘Climate Change’ projects.
For the neo-luddites like Obama’s science czar John Holdren and the Club of Rome this is another benefit of CAGW
The idea is not that bad. It depends on the energy required to If it is cheaper to use the concentrated UV sunlight to release the CO2 than burning more fossil fuel to do the release then that is a plus. The question that remains is what do you do with the CO2. How much energy will it take to store it either as a gas or a condensed gas or fluid and where. That is where the hang up is. Of course the over all questions is, Is CO2 a problem? We are back to square one!
The ‘sponge’ which is made from a new smart material called
a MOF – metal organic frameworkVegetation – adsorbs carbon dioxide, but when exposed to sunlight, instantaneously releases it. in the form of Oxygen and Sugars. Which, Scientists now believe, could, theoretically, form the basis of some wacky ‘outer world’ planetary food chain where ‘plants’ would flourish and the ‘Planetary ‘President’ has five heads such as to give a ‘blow job’ to his top five campaign donors simultaneouslyCO2 must be assimilated…