They range from aqueous amines-the water-rich solvents that run through today’s commercially available capture units, which Jiang used as an industrial comparison-to energy-efficient membranes that filter CO 2 from flue gas emitted by power plants.Ĭurrent atmospheric CO 2 levels have soared higher in recent years than at any point within the last 800,000 years, as a new record high of 409.8 parts per million was struck in 2019. “It can capture carbon dioxide without high water content, so it’s water-lean, and it’s much less viscous than other water-lean solvents.”Ĭarbon capture methods are diverse. “EEMPA has some promising qualities,” said chemical engineer Yuan Jiang, lead author of the study. and the Electric Power Research Institute-describe properties of the solvent, known as EEMPA, that allow it to sidestep the energetically expensive demands incurred by traditional solvents. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory-along with collaborators from Fluor Corp. In a study published in the March 2021 edition of International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, researchers from the U.S. And it can be easily applied in existing capture systems.

The new technology requires 17 percent less energy to accomplish the same task as its commercial counterparts, surpassing barriers that have kept other forms of carbon capture from widespread industrial use. PNNL-developed solvent breaks barriers, captures carbon for less than industrial counterparts.Īs part of a marathon research effort to lower the cost of carbon capture, chemists have now demonstrated a method to seize carbon dioxide (CO 2) that reduces costs by 19 percent compared to current commercial technology. Credit: Animation by Michael Perkins | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Finally, the stripped solvent is reintroduced to the carbon dioxide absorber, where the process begins again. Then, as a saturated solvent (blue), EEMPA is stripped of carbon dioxide in high and low-pressure tanks. From left to right, EEMPA (red) first interacts with flue gas (black), where it absorbs carbon dioxide.

This animation depicts the two-stage flash configuration, one of several processes described in a new study detailing how EEMPA, a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory-developed solvent, can capture carbon from flue gas emitted by power plants.

Capture one cost