Credit: Eduard Garrido Ribó et al.
Researchers from Oregon State University have developed a novel carbon scrubbing method utilizing vanadium peroxide to react with and bind to carbon dioxide. The findings are an important step towards advancing the technologies needed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Published in Chemical Science, the findings come as a result of a federal push to develop novel techniques for direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide. Chosen as a leader for one of nine federally funded DAC research projects, Oregon State's May Nyman and her team have been analyzing how transition metals can react with air to convert carbon dioxide to a metal carbonate.
"A challenge with direct air capture is finding molecules or materials that are selective enough, or other reactions with more abundant air molecules, such as reactions with water, will outcompete the reaction with CO2," Nyman said. "Our team synthesized a series of molecules that contain three parts that are important in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and they work together."
The three parts used to make up the system in the study were vanadium, peroxide, and an alkali cation. During testing, the researchers attempted to use neighboring metals to vanadium, however they were found to be less effective.
"Tungsten, niobium and tantalum were not as effective in this chemical form," Nyman said. "On the other hand, molybdenum was so reactive it exploded sometimes."
In addition to its effectiveness at binding to carbon dioxide, vanadium allows for a lower release temperature of 200°C.
"That's compared to almost 700°C when it is bonded to potassium, lithium or sodium, other metals used for carbon capture," she said. "Being able to rerelease the captured CO2 enables reuse of the carbon capture materials, and the lower the temperature required for doing that, the less energy that's needed and the smaller the cost. There are some very clever ideas about reuse of captured carbon already being implemented—for example, piping the captured CO2 into a greenhouse to grow plants."
Despite existing technologies existing to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions at the source, such as at power plants, facilities to filter it from the air are still in their infancy. With both types of mitigation being necessary to combat climate change, the work conducted by the researchers will provide the groundwork for future DAC mitigation efforts.