WASHINGTON DC – Scientists have discovered a reusable material that can capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and prevent the greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere.
A team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology claim that the aluminum formate material, known as ALF, lacks the shortcomings of other proposed carbon filtration methods and is made of substances found abundantly.
“What makes this work exciting is that ALF performs really well relative to other high-performing CO2 adsorbents, but it rivals designer compounds in its simplicity, overall stability and ease of preparation,” said Hayden Evans, a chemist at the NIST Center for Neutron Research.
“It is made of two substances found easily and abundantly, so creating enough ALF to use widely should be possible at very low cost.”
Coal-fired power plants account for around 30 per cent of all CO2 emissions globally, with estimates from the International Energy Agency (IEA) finding that coal combustion was responsible for over 0.3°C of the 1°C increase in global average annual surface temperatures above pre-industrial levels.
