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Computer model pinpoints prime materials for efficient carbon capture
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/05/27/computer-model-pinpoints-prime-materials-for-efficient-carbon-capture/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Computer model pinpoints prime materials for efficient carbon capture[/font]
By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | May 27, 2012
[font size=3]BERKELEY — When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it’s a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
Current technologies would use about one-third of the energy generated by the plants – what’s called “parasitic energy” – and, as a result, substantially drive up the price of electricity.
But a new computer model developed by University of California, Berkeley, chemists shows that less expensive technologies are on the horizon. They will use new solid materials like zeolites and metal oxide frameworks (MOFs) that more efficiently capture carbon dioxide so that it can be sequestered underground.
“The current on-the-shelf process of carbon capture has problems, including environmental ones, if you do it on a large scale,” said Berend Smit, Chancellor’s Professor in the departments of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of chemistry at UC Berkeley and a faculty senior scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). “Our calculations show that we can reduce the parasitic energy costs of carbon capture by 30 percent with these types of materials, which should encourage the industry and academics to look at them.”
…[/font][/font]
By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | May 27, 2012
[font size=3]BERKELEY — When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it’s a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
Current technologies would use about one-third of the energy generated by the plants – what’s called “parasitic energy” – and, as a result, substantially drive up the price of electricity.
But a new computer model developed by University of California, Berkeley, chemists shows that less expensive technologies are on the horizon. They will use new solid materials like zeolites and metal oxide frameworks (MOFs) that more efficiently capture carbon dioxide so that it can be sequestered underground.
“The current on-the-shelf process of carbon capture has problems, including environmental ones, if you do it on a large scale,” said Berend Smit, Chancellor’s Professor in the departments of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of chemistry at UC Berkeley and a faculty senior scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). “Our calculations show that we can reduce the parasitic energy costs of carbon capture by 30 percent with these types of materials, which should encourage the industry and academics to look at them.”
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat3336
