DISAMPING KANAN INI.............
PLEASE USE ........ "TRANSLATE MACHINE" .. GOOGLE TRANSLATE BESIDE RIGHT THIS
.................
Spons karbon dioksida dapat lebih menjernihkan
energy
Spons plastik
yang sops up gas rumah kaca karbon dioksida (CO2) mungkin memudahkan tranisition kami dari mencemari bahan-bakar fosil untuk sumber
energi baru seperti hidrogen........... plastik wadah makanan dapat
memainkan peran dalam rencana Presiden Obama untuk memotong emisi CO2. Materi
yang mungkin juga suatu hari nanti dapat diintegrasikan ke dalam cerobong asap
pembangkit listrik................
Carbon dioxide 'sponge' could ease transition to cleaner energy
Date:
August 10,
2014
Source:
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Summary:
A plastic sponge that sops up the greenhouse gas
carbon dioxide (CO2) might ease our tranisition away from polluting fossil
fuels to new energy sources like hydrogen. A relative of food container
plastics could play a role in President Obama’s plan to cut CO2 emissions. The
material might also someday be integrated into power plant smokestacks.
...........................
A sponge-like plastic that sops up the greenhouse gas carbon
dioxide (CO2) might ease our transition away from polluting fossil
fuels and toward new energy sources, such as hydrogen. The material -- a
relative of the plastics used in food containers -- could play a role in
President Obama's plan to cut CO2 emissions 30 percent by 2030, and
could also be integrated into power plant smokestacks in the future.
The report
on the material is one of nearly 12,000 presentations at the 248th National
Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's
largest scientific society, taking place here through Thursday.
"The
key point is that this polymer is stable, it's cheap, and it adsorbs CO2
extremely well. It's geared toward function in a real-world environment,"
says Andrew Cooper, Ph.D. "In a future landscape where fuel-cell
technology is used, this adsorbent could work toward zero-emission
technology."
CO2
adsorbents are most commonly used to remove the greenhouse gas pollutant from
smokestacks at power plants where fossil fuels like coal or gas are burned.
However, Cooper and his team intend the adsorbent, a microporous organic
polymer, for a different application -- one that could lead to reduced
pollution.
The new
material would be a part of an emerging technology called an integrated
gasification combined cycle (IGCC), which can convert fossil fuels into
hydrogen gas. Hydrogen holds great promise for use in fuel-cell cars and
electricity generation because it produces almost no pollution. IGCC is a
bridging technology that is intended to jump-start the hydrogen economy, or the
transition to hydrogen fuel, while still using the existing fossil-fuel
infrastructure. But the IGCC process yields a mixture of hydrogen and CO2
gas, which must be separated.
Cooper, who
is at the University of Liverpool, says that the sponge works best under the
high pressures intrinsic to the IGCC process. Just like a kitchen sponge swells
when it takes on water, the adsorbent swells slightly when it soaks up CO2
in the tiny spaces between its molecules. When the pressure drops, he explains,
the adsorbent deflates and releases the CO2, which they can then
collect for storage or convert into useful carbon compounds.
The
material, which is a brown, sand-like powder, is made by linking together many
small carbon-based molecules into a network. Cooper explains that the idea to
use this structure was inspired by polystyrene, a plastic used in styrofoam and
other packaging material. Polystyrene can adsorb small amounts of CO2
by the same swelling action.
One
advantage of using polymers is that they tend to be very stable. The material
can even withstand being boiled in acid, proving it should tolerate the harsh
conditions in power plants where CO2 adsorbents are needed. Other CO2
scrubbers -- whether made from plastics or metals or in liquid form -- do not
always hold up so well, he says. Another advantage of the new adsorbent is its
ability to adsorb CO2 without also taking on water vapor, which can
clog up other materials and make them less effective. Its low cost also makes
the sponge polymer attractive. "Compared to many other adsorbents, they're
cheap," Cooper says, mostly because the carbon molecules used to make them
are inexpensive. "And in principle, they're highly reusable and have long
lifetimes because they're very robust."
Cooper also
will describe ways to adapt his microporous polymer for use in smokestacks and
other exhaust streams. He explains that it is relatively simple to embed the
spongy polymers in the kinds of membranes already being evaluated to remove CO2
from power plant exhaust, for instance. Combining two types of scrubbers could
make much better adsorbents by harnessing the strengths of each, he explains.
The research
was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and E.ON
Energy.
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by American Chemical Society (ACS). Note: Materials may be edited
for content and length.
