Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is the primary way to mitigate the effects of climate change. Converting to renewable energy sources to generate electricity and the electrification of vehicles are key requirements for reducing emissions. But industrial plants produce about 20% of global emissions. Major contributors include the production of petrochemicals, cement, and fertilizers. The emissions come from both the heat required for the industrial processes and from the processes themselves.
As a result, capturing the carbon dioxide emitted by industrial plants is an important part of the effort to reduce global warming. There are technologies available for carbon capture, but they tend to be energy intensive and, therefore, expensive. The most common method involves running waste gases through a solution that contains chemical compounds called amines. As the amines absorb CO2, their pH drops and their ability to absorb the gas drops quickly.
Chemical engineers at MIT have developed a simple way to make carbon capture more efficient and less expensive. It involves adding a chemical to carbon capture chemicals that stabilizes their pH and allows them to absorb more CO2 at relatively low temperatures. The chemical is called ‘tris’, which is short for trishydroxymethylaminomethane.
When tris is added to existing absorbent chemicals, they can do their work at 140 degrees Fahrenheit compared with more than 250 degrees without the tris. This reduces operating costs dramatically. The approach could be implemented almost immediately in fairly standard types of equipment.
