\n<\/p>\n
An innocuous yellow powder, created in a lab, could be a new way to combat the climate crisis by absorbing carbon from the air.<\/p>\n
Just half a pound of the stuff may remove as much carbon dioxide as a tree can, according to early tests. Once the carbon is absorbed by the powder, it can be released into safe storage or be used in industrial processes, like carbonizing drinks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis really addresses a major problem in the tech field, and it gives an opportunity now for us to scale it up and start using it,\u201d says Omar Yaghi, a chemist at the University of California<\/a>, Berkeley. It\u2019s not the first material to absorb carbon, but \u201cit\u2019s a quantum leap ahead [of other compounds] in terms of the durability of the material\u201d.<\/p>\n The powder is known as a covalent organic framework, with strong chemical bonds that pull gases out of the air. The material is both durable and porous, and can be used hundreds of times, making it superior to other materials used for carbon capture<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yaghi has been working on similar materials for decades. It\u2019s part of a broader push to collect tiny amounts of carbon from the air \u2013 either from power plants or from air around cities. Yaghi\u2019s research with Zihui Zhou, a graduate student in his lab, and others was published in the journal Nature<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n In the lab, Yaghi\u2019s team tested the new powder and found that it could successfully absorb and release carbon more than 100 times. It fills up with carbon in about two hours, and then must be heated to release the gas before starting the process over again. It only requires a temperature of about 120F to release the carbon; that makes it an improvement over other methods, which require a much higher temperature.<\/p>\n That feature means places that already produce extra heat \u2013 such as factories or power plants \u2013 could use it to release the gas and start the cycle again. The material could be incorporated into existing carbon capture systems or future technology.<\/p>\n Yaghi says he could imagine a future in which people build large plants using the material in every city of 1 million people or more around the world. He has plans to scale the use of this type of carbon capture with his Irvine, California-based company, Atoco, and believes the powder can be manufactured in multi-ton quantities in less than a year.<\/p>\n Shengqian Ma, a chemist at the University of North Texas who was not involved in the new work, says this technology could be gamechanging. \u201cOne longstanding challenge for direct air capture lies in the high regeneration temperatures,\u201d he says, adding that the new material can substantially reduce the energy needed to use direct air capture, making it \u201cvery novel\u201d and \u201cvery promising\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to reduce our greenhouse emissions, and we need to do it fast,\u201d says Farzan Kazemifar, a mechanical engineer at San Jose State University who was not involved in the new study. \u201cIn the short term, replacing large emitters of carbon dioxide \u2013 like coal power plants \u2013 with renewable electricity offers the fastest reduction in emissions. However, in the long term, in case the emissions don\u2019t go down at the desired pace, or if global warming effects intensify, we may need to rely on technologies that can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and direct air capture is one of those technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n