TOKYO, Japan – A team of researchers led by Professor Seiji Yamazoe at the Tokyo Metropolitan University has developed a new direct air capture method to trap carbon dioxide. It works with 99 percent efficiency, a Eureka Alert press release said.
The world is transitioning to cleaner sources of energy. However, the transition is prolonged, and while it completes over the next few decades, tons of carbon dioxide will be further released into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change. To contain the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, many strategies are being applied, with direct air capture being one of them.
In this method of carbon capture, carbon dioxide is extracted directly from the air. The captured carbon can either be stored in deep geological formations or used in various human activities such as food processing or making synthetic fuels, the International Energy Agency says on its website.
There are two major approaches to doing this. One is called the liquid DAC, where the air is passed through liquid systems, where a chemical reaction occurs between a liquid solution and carbon dioxide is trapped in the solution.
The other is a solid DAC that uses solid sorbent filters that react with the carbon dioxide and bind them the has to them. Both these systems are reversible, which means that the trapped carbon dioxide can be released using high temperatures when needed, and the systems can be reused.
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