PNNL carbon-capture technology featured at ACS

News Brief

August 23, 2017

• Tom Rickey, PNNL, (509) 375-3732

Washington D.C. - A trio of scientists from the D.O.E.'s Pacific Northwest National Lab presented new findings about their research on carbon capture Monday, dominating a session on the topic at the yearly meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Phillip Koech, David Heldebrant and Deepika Malhotra discussed their findings on a class of molecules designed to capture carbon dioxide emitted from power plants. The PNNL team recently overcame one formidable barrier to removing the gas from a plant's waste stream, reducing the viscosity of the carbon-removing materials by in excess of 90 percent. That means less energy would be needed to use the materials in a process where they absorb the gas, release it and then repeat the process - tiny molecular shuttles collecting the gas for potential use in oil recovery or the creation of plastics and other products.

A key to the work was a collaboration with PNNL scientists Vanda Glezakou and Roger Rousseau, who pinpointed the precise molecular bond that was causing the experimental material to be so viscous. With that knowledge, the other scientists altered a single hydrogen bond, dramatically reducing the viscosity of the material - changing it from the consistency of honey to more like water.

The material delivers the gas it collects at a relatively low temperature of 60 degrees Celsius, and it regenerates at 100 degrees Celsius - both enhancements over current technologies since lower temperatures translate to less energy necessary to perform reactions.

Heldebrant and crew recently discussed the state of research around these materials, known as water-lean solvents, in a review in the journal Chemical Reviews.

Tags: Energy, Environment, Fundamental Science, Emissions, Carbon Capture and Sequestration, Materials

Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Lab address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. Founded in 1965, PNNL employs 4,400 staff and has an yearly budget of nearly $1 billion. It is managed and operated by Battelle for the D.O.E.'s Office of Science. As the single biggest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information on PNNL, visit the PNNL News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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