MIT Engineers Develop Novel Way To Remove Carbon Dioxide From Air

Carbon-dioxide removing device from air devised by MIT scientists

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a new weapon in the fight against climate change. Scientists have created a new system that could remove carbon dioxide from a stream of air that can work at almost any concentration level, from power plant emissions to open air, according to Massachusetts Institute Technology News.

MIT said this new system requires less energy and less money to operate compared to the other methods, which require higher concentrations like those found in the flue emissions from fossil fuel-based power plants.

The new device at the heart of the system behaves like a large battery. It absorbs carbon dioxide from a gas stream that passes over its electrodes as it is being charged up. The device then blows out the pure carbon dioxide as it discharges.

The system’s inner-workings are detailed further by the researchers — MIT postdoc Sahag Voskian and professor T. Alan Hatton — in a paper called Faradaic Electro-swing Reactive Adsorption for CO2 Capture, which was published this month in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.

The researchers are striving to develop new technologies to tackle a range of environmental issues that avoid

the need for thermal energy sources, changes in system pressure or addition of chemicals to complete the separation & release cycles, Hatton told MIT News. This CO2 capture technology is a clear demonstration of the power of electrochemical approaches that require only small swings in voltage to drive the separations, he added.

While operating, the device alternates between charging & discharging. During a charging cycle, fresh air blows through the system and during discharging, concentrated CO2 blows through.

The MIT team has launched a company called Verdox to commercialize the system, which could have applications for the bottling of soft drinks & the creation of plant food.

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