{"id":453861,"date":"2023-07-31T11:36:19","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T09:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=453861"},"modified":"2023-07-31T11:36:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T09:36:19","slug":"a-unique-machine-that-will-capture-co2-with-sieves-and-sponges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/a-unique-machine-that-will-capture-co2-with-sieves-and-sponges\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>A unique machine that will\u00a0capture CO2 with sieves and sponges<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A team of students from&nbsp;the&nbsp;Swiss science and technology institution EPFL is working on a unique prototype that uses graphene membranes combined with a porous, sponge-like material to pull carbon from the atmosphere, says EPFL in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/actu.epfl.ch\/news\/epfl-carbon-team-aims-to-capture-co2-with-sieves-a\/\">press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project, which is a part of EPFL\u2019s MAKE program, aims&nbsp;to build a machine that can remove CO2 from the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"io-block io-block__summary\"><ul><li>EPFL students work on a prototype using graphene membranes and a sponge-like material to extract CO2 from the atmosphere.<\/li><li>Combining two technologies, one captures CO2 at low concentrations using adsorbent powder, while the other uses graphene membranes as sieves for higher CO2 concentrations.<\/li><li>The team aims to develop a cost-effective carbon capture technology to meet climate goals by removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere.<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Technologies involved<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The project involves two technologies.&nbsp;The first&nbsp;one,&nbsp;developed at the Laboratory for Functional Inorganic Materials (LFIM)&nbsp;and&nbsp;headed by Prof. Wendy Queen&nbsp;uses an adsorbent powder&nbsp;which&nbsp;acts like a sponge, pulling CO<sub>2<\/sub>&nbsp;from the air as it passes through it. The powder is then heated to release the trapped carbon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second technology,&nbsp;developed by Prof. Kumar Agrawal&nbsp;uses&nbsp;porous atom-thick graphene membranes that act like sieves, allowing only CO2&nbsp;to pass through from the mixture of CO2&nbsp;and N2. \u201cOur technology is based on relative molecular size,\u201d&nbsp;Agrawal&nbsp;explains. \u201cUsing a chemical process, we puncture tiny, CO2-sized holes in the graphene film. CO2&nbsp;can pass through these holes but not N2 which is a bigger molecule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>All the benefits without the drawbacks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The team\u2019s approach aims to harness all the benefits of the two technologies while avoiding their drawbacks.&nbsp;The benefit of Prof. Queen\u2019s technology is its ability to capture CO2&nbsp;even at low concentrations. However, because the powder has to be heated to release CO2, the process is energy-intensive. The heat also damages the adsorbent powder, which has to be replaced at regular intervals. Conversely, Prof. Agrawal\u2019s technology uses very little energy but works efficiently only at relatively high CO2&nbsp;concentrations.&nbsp;The&nbsp;team\u2019s concept involves preparing \u201cCO2-enriched\u201d air using only a moderately powerful adsorbent powder and then passing this air through the membranes, which work more efficiently at higher&nbsp;carbon&nbsp;concentrations. \u201cBy combining these two approaches, we can significantly reduce the cost of carbon capture,\u201d says Queen.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"vlp-link-container vlp-layout-basic wp-block-visual-link-preview-link advgb-dyn-53a40059\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/seaweed-to-biocoal-a-novel-carbon-capture-solution\/\" class=\"vlp-link\" title=\"Seaweed to biocoal: A novel carbon capture solution\"><\/a><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-side\"><div class=\"vlp-block-2 vlp-link-image\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-main\"><div class=\"vlp-block-0 vlp-link-title\">Seaweed to biocoal: A novel carbon capture solution<\/div><div class=\"vlp-block-1 vlp-link-summary\">Norwegian researchers are testing a new method for carbon capture and storage using seaweed. The Seaweed Carbon Solutions JIP project, led by SINTEF, aims to &hellip; <a href=\"\">Continued<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to&nbsp;Prof. Agrawal,&nbsp;the results of the large-scale simulations are promising. The&nbsp;team has&nbsp;also built a prototype that now needs to be tested. The scale was one of the main challenges the team faced. \u201cIn the lab, we work at the centimetre scale,\u201d says Agrawal. \u201cWe had to build membranes out to the meter-scale, then scale them up to 10 times that size, in order to make them suitable for real-world applications.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Climate goals in mind<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To begin with, the prototype will be capable of trapping only tiny quantities of CO2. \u201cBut our goal is to capture one or two kilos of CO2&nbsp;per day,\u201d says&nbsp;Karl&nbsp;Khalil&nbsp;founder of EPFL carbon team. \u201cBy the end of this year, we\u2019re aiming to produce carbonated water on campus.\u201d<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur aim is to develop a technology that works.&nbsp;If the world is to meet its climate targets, we don\u2019t need to just capture the CO2 we\u2019re emitting today. We also have to remove all the carbon released into the atmosphere since the dawn of the industrial age,\u201d&nbsp;he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of students from&nbsp;the&nbsp;Swiss science and technology institution EPFL is working on a unique prototype that uses graphene membranes combined with a porous, sponge-like material to pull carbon from the atmosphere, says EPFL in a&nbsp;press release. The project, which is a part of EPFL\u2019s MAKE program, aims&nbsp;to build a machine that can remove CO2 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2591,"featured_media":495516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76370,42],"tags":[66455,43774,69773,36354],"location":[52892],"article_type":[36684],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-453861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-sustainability-nl","tag-carbon-capture","tag-climate-targets","tag-co2-2","tag-co2-reduction","location-switzerland","article_type-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"The prototype will use graphene membranes combined with a porous, sponge-like material to pull carbon from the atmosphere.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Shwet Parag","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/shwet-parag\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/co2-4767440.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/science\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Science<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Science<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Sustainability<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Carbon Capture<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">climate targets<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">co2<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">CO2 reduction<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Carbon Capture<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">climate targets<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">co2<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">CO2 reduction<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 3 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 31, 2023","modified":"Updated on July 31, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 31, 2023 11:36 am","modified":"Updated on July 31, 2023 11:36 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2591"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453861"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=453861"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=453861"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=453861"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=453861"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=453861"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=453861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}