Eight Ounces of This Powder Removes as Much CO2 from the Air as a Tree

Included in the broad scientific consensus on climate change is the notion that it’s unlikely humans can prevent the worst events of 2°C of warming without removing excess carbon that’s already in the atmosphere.

To that end, student inventors at UC Berkeley have created this yellow powder, half a pound of which can absorb the same amount of CO2 as a mature oak tree.

GNN just reported that humanity may have more wiggle room to avoid the worst predicted effects of climate change than previously thought, based on updated models of CO2 absorption in plants.

Even still, if all currently developing economies follow the same or similar emissions curves that the G20 did during the 20th and 21st centuries, carbon still needs to be pulled from the atmosphere to keep the global amount under 450 parts per million—a number that is said to be a threshold beyond which excess carbon would be exceedingly dangerous.

To do so, engineers have been trying to devise the best methods to take carbon that’s already been emitted into the atmosphere and capture it. At the Climeworks plant up in Iceland, the world’s largest “direct air capture” device is storing 4,000 metric tons of atmospheric CO2 underground every year.

This yellow powder however, could perform substantially better if certain applications for its use could be developed.

It’s called COF-999, and it’s been engineered using non-exotic materials to be extremely porous and durable. Omar Yaghi, a reticular chemist, and UC Berkeley colleague Zihui Zhou, a materials chemist, designed it to act like a cross between an air filter and a sponge.

Made by some of the strongest chemical bonds, like those that hold diamond crystals together, COF-999 appears to be filled with channels under a microscope. Within these channels and attached to these strong bonds are compounds called amines that grab hold of passing carbon dioxide molecules as air moves through and against them.

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There are enough amines in just half a pound of this powder to soak up 88 pounds of CO2, about the same as a large tree does by the time it reaches maturity. Compared to synthetic materials used for direct air capture, it captures carbon about 10 times faster as well. Once absorbed, if the powder is heated to 140°F, all the CO2 is released.

This absorb and release can be repeated hundreds of times.

“It performs beautifully,” said Yaghi. “Based on the stability and the behavior of the material right now, we think it will go to thousands of cycles.”

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At the moment, the major hurdle to overcome is how to position the powder in the open air, in a manufacturing or power plant that can deposit the carbon in a solid material, without it blowing away in the wind.

LA Times described the powder as ready for commercial scale within two years, according to Yaghi’s estimates. He and his colleague Zhou patented their invention and founded a startup to try and launch it into commercialization.

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