Isophorone diamine (IPDA) in a “liquid-solid phase separation” system was found to remove carbon dioxide at the low concentrations contained in the atmosphere with 99 per cent efficiency. The researchers said that the compound is reusable with minimal heating and at least twice as fast as existing systems.
While the world is currently trying to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero, scientists are also looking at ultimately removing CO2 that has already been released in order to bring levels down to those found in the pre-industrial era.
Currently, many hurdles remain before carbon capture technologies can be deployed at scale. The biggest challenges come from efficiency, particularly in processing atmospheric air directly in direct air capture (DAC) systems.
The concentrations of CO2 are such that chemical reactions with sorbents are very slow. It has also proven difficult to get the CO2 out again in more sustainable capture-and-desorption cycles,...