BREAKTHROUGH: CARBON CAPTURE PERFECTED

Nobody says it better than the Professor Omar M. Yaghi, Professor of Chemistry, UCLA: "The technical challenge of selectively removing carbon dioxide has been overcome…Now we have structures that can be tailored precisely to capture carbon dioxide and store it like a reservoir, as we have demonstrated. No carbon dioxide escapes. Nothing escapes — unless you want it to do so. We believe this to be a turning point in capturing carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere."

Turning point? That is an understatement. If this works like Yaghi claims, Al Gore is going to have to retire.

Professor Yaghi: "The capture of carbon dioxide creates cleaner energy…ZIFs in a smokestack would trap carbon dioxide in the pores prior to its delivery to its geologic storage space."

Well, there is still some question as to whether the CO2 can be stored safely. And there is going to be a fight about coal mining. Some people are worried about natural gas and coal supplies eventually peaking (not the Chinese). But this will turn the climate change debate back into the old environmentalists-versus-capitalists debate, a whole different order of discussion than what is going on today.

And all those emissions markets – what will happen to them if there are no emissions?

In the Bible, the word “zif” means “a region of splendor” or “comeliness and brightness.” Chemists find the ZIF crystal structure beautiful and ZIFs may lead to a world of splendor.

The questions remaining: Can ZIF-carbon-capture (ZCC) be done on a commercial scale, when and how much will using this technique add to the cost of coal- and gas-fired electricity?

ZIF: zeolitic imidazolate frameworks. (click to enlarge)

New materials can selectively capture carbon dioxide, UCLA chemists report
Stuart Wolpert, February 14, 2008 (UCLA via EurekAlert)

WHO
Omar M. Yaghi, paper co-author/ Professor of Chemistry, UCLA; Bo Wang, co-author/graduate student in chemistry, UCLA; Carolyn Knobler, co-author, Center for Reticular Chemistry, UCLA California NanoSystems Institute; Hiroyasu Furukawa, co-author, Center for Reticular Chemistry, UCLA California NanoSystems Institute; Michael O'Keeffe, Department of chemistry and biochemistry, Arizona State University; Rahul Banerjee, postdoctoral research scholar in chemistry, UCLA; Anh Phan, graduate student in chemistry, UCLA

Professor Yaghi. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
The researchers have developed materials called ZIF (zeolitic imidazolate frameworks) crystal structures which can effectively capture carbon dioxide emitted during the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity.

WHEN
The research breakthrough is reported in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science.

WHERE
The research was done in Yaghi’s laboratory at UCLA in Los Angeles, Ca.

Another ZIF. Might this region of splendor change the climate change game forever? (click to enlarge)

WHY
- ZIFs are porous, chemically robust, have large surface areas, can be heated to high temperatures or boiled in water or organic solvents for a week without decomposing.
- 3 of 25 ZIFs (ZIF-68, ZIF-69, ZIF-70) capture CO2 very efficiently.
- The ZIFs capture molecules selectively by size and shape.
- ZIFs would replace the existing capture process that is energy intensive, inefficient and requires toxic materials.
- Zeolites, made from aluminum, silicon and oxygen, are used in petroleum refining and detergents. The new ZIFs replace the aluminum and silicon with zinc and cobalt.
- The UCLA researchers vastly sped up ZIF synthesis, finding new, more effective materials.
- Funding came from the multinational chemical company BASF and from the U.S. Dept of Energy.

ZIF makers in Yaghi's UCLA lab. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Professor Yaghi: "The selectivity of ZIFs to carbon dioxide is unparalleled by any other material…Rahul and Anh were so successful at making new ZIFs that, for the purposes of reporting the results, I had to ask them to stop."
- Phan: "We can screen and select the one type of molecule we want to capture…The beauty of the chemistry is that we have the freedom to choose what kind of door we want and to control what goes through the door."
- Bannerjee: "For each liter of ZIF, you can hold 83 liters of carbon dioxide…We keep producing new crystals of ZIFs every day…These reactions produce crystals that look as beautiful as diamonds."