New research suggests the best material to keep carbon dioxide from building up in the atmosphere is a simple derivative of asphalt.
The findings build on last year's discovery of a "green" carbon capture material by introducing an even better material made cheaply from asphalt, Rice University reported.
Using this method the researchers created a powder that holds 114 percent of its weight in carbon dioxide. The porous material works by capturing carbon dioxide molecules at room temperature while letting methane gas pass through.
Amine-based materials that are often used in industrial facilities like power plants to absorb carbon dioxide are both expensive and corrosive. These materials are also only able to capture about 13 percent carbon dioxide by weight. Materials that are currently under development to combat these issues tend to be made from metal organic framework, which is extremely expensive to produce and don't have a great selectivity between carbon and methane.
The new compound, dubbed asphalt-porous carbon (A-PC), captures carbon dioxide while it creates a wellhead under the pressure caused by the rising gas; once this pressure is relieved the carbon dioxide is released and can be piped away.
"This provides an ultra-inexpensive route to a high-value material for the capture of carbon dioxide from natural gas streams," said Rice laboratory chemist James Tour. "Not only did we increase its capacity, we lowered the price substantially."
The lab will now continue to work on improving the efficiency of the material, but boasted the material is already better for carbon capture than any other material currently being used.
The research appears in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials and Interfaces. The Apache Corp. funded the research. MI SWACO-Schlumberger and Prince Energy provided asphalt samples.
