A scientific breakthrough,funded in part by ExxonMobil is reported in the the effort to implement carbon capture as more and more demands are put on energy producing firms to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
If successful, it could lead to dramatic efforts to reduce those emissions in Oklahoma, Texas and other oil producing states.
Oilprice.com reports scientists from ExxonMobil, University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered a new material that could capture more than 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources. It would help natural gas-fired power plants and other industries meet increasingly stringent carbon emissions rules.
It’s a breakthrough in a collaboration that’s been eight years in the making between ExxonMobil and its two partners. The patent-pending materials, known as tetraamine-functionalized metal organic frameworks, capture carbon dioxide emissions up to six times more effectively than conventional amine-based carbon capture technology. The technology uses low-temperature steam, requiring less energy for the overall carbon capture process.
Needing less energy to capture, remove, and sequester (or store) can bring down the cost quite a bit. It also opens the door for the technology to eventually support commercial applications.
Their innovative carbon capture method remains stable in the presence of water vapor, without oxidation, allowing carbon dioxide to be captured from various sources, under a number of conditions.
The ability to manipulate the structure of metal organs framework materials has allowed the team to condense a surface area the size of a football field into just one gram of mass. It then becomes a sponge for capturing carbon emissions.
“This innovative hybrid porous material has so far proven to be more effective, requires less heating and cooling, and captures more CO2 than current materials,” said Vijay Swarup, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company.
Timing is right as carbon capture provides companies with a faster and more cost-effective strategy in hitting internal and government-mandated targets. Carbon capture and sequestration allows carbon dioxide from power-plant combustion and other industrial sources that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere to be captured, compressed, and injected underground for safe, secure, and permanent storage. Carbon capture and sequestration can capture up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels in power generation and industrial processes.
ExxonMobil claims to have about one-fifth of the world’s total carbon capture capacity. The company captures about 7 million tons per year of carbon. This has been in place since 1970, and the company claims to have captured more CO2 than any other company — more than 40 percent of cumulative CO2 captured.\
Source: Oilprice.com