探花直播 of Cambridge - carbon capture and storage (CCS)

Solar-powered device captures carbon dioxide from air to make sustainable fuel

sc604 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:00:00 +0000

探花直播researchers, from the 探花直播 of Cambridge, say their solar-powered reactor could be used to make fuel to power cars and planes, or the many chemicals and pharmaceuticals products we rely on. It could also be used to generate fuel in remote or off-grid locations.

Unlike most carbon capture technologies, the reactor developed by the Cambridge researchers does not require fossil-fuel-based power, or the transport and storage of carbon dioxide, but instead converts atmospheric CO2 into something useful using sunlight. 探花直播results are reported in the journal Nature Energy.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has been touted as a possible solution to the climate crisis, and has recently received 拢22bn in funding from the UK government. However, CCS is energy-intensive and there are concerns about the long-term safety of storing pressurised CO2 deep underground, although safety studies are currently being carried out.

鈥淎side from the expense and the energy intensity, CCS provides an excuse to carry on burning fossil fuels, which is what caused the climate crisis in the first place,鈥� said Professor Erwin Reisner, who led the research. 鈥淐CS is also a non-circular process, since the pressurised CO2 is, at best, stored underground indefinitely, where it鈥檚 of no use to anyone.鈥�

鈥淲hat if instead of pumping the carbon dioxide underground, we made something useful from it?鈥� said first author Dr Sayan Kar from Cambridge鈥檚 Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry. 鈥淐O2 is a harmful greenhouse gas, but it can also be turned into useful chemicals without contributing to global warming.鈥�

探花直播focus of Reisner鈥檚 research group is the development of devices that convert waste, water and air into practical fuels and chemicals. These devices take their inspiration from photosynthesis: the process by which plants convert sunlight into food. 探花直播devices don鈥檛 use any outside power: no cables, no batteries 鈥� all they need is the power of the sun.

探花直播team鈥檚 newest system takes CO2 directly from the air and converts it into syngas: a key intermediate in the production of many chemicals and pharmaceuticals. 探花直播researchers say their approach, which does not require any transportation or storage, is much easier to scale up than earlier solar-powered devices.

探花直播device, a solar-powered flow reactor, uses specialised filters to grab CO2 from the air at night, like how a sponge soaks up water. When the sun comes out, the sunlight heats up the captured CO2, absorbing infrared radiation and a semiconductor powder absorbs the ultraviolet radiation to start a chemical reaction that converts the captured CO2 into solar syngas. A mirror on the reactor concentrates the sunlight, making the process more efficient.

探花直播researchers are currently working on converting the solar syngas into liquid fuels, which could be used to power cars, planes and more 鈥� without adding more CO2 to the atmosphere.

鈥淚f we made these devices at scale, they could solve two problems at once: removing CO2 from the atmosphere and creating a clean alternative to fossil fuels,鈥� said Kar. 鈥淐O2 is seen as a harmful waste product, but it is also an opportunity.鈥�

探花直播researchers say that a particularly promising opportunity is in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector, where syngas can be converted into many of the products we rely on every day, without contributing to climate change. They are building a larger scale version of the reactor and hope to begin tests in the spring.

If scaled up, the researchers say their reactor could be used in a decentralised way, so that individuals could theoretically generate their own fuel, which would be useful in remote or off-grid locations.

鈥淚nstead of continuing to dig up and burn fossil fuels to produce the products we have come to rely on, we can get all the CO2 we need directly from the air and reuse it,鈥� said Reisner. 鈥淲e can build a circular, sustainable economy 鈥� if we have the political will to do it.鈥�

探花直播technology is being commercialised with the support of Cambridge Enterprise, the 探花直播鈥檚 commercialisation arm. 探花直播research was supported in part by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the European Research Council, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Cambridge Trust. Erwin Reisner is a Fellow of St John鈥檚 College, Cambridge.

Reference:
Sayan Kar et al. 鈥�Direct air capture of CO2 for solar fuels production in flow.鈥� Nature Energy (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01714-y

For more information on聽energy-related research in Cambridge, please visit the聽Energy聽IRC, which brings together Cambridge鈥檚 research knowledge and expertise, in collaboration with global partners, to create solutions for a sustainable and resilient energy landscape for generations to come.聽

Researchers have developed a reactor that pulls carbon dioxide directly from the air and converts it into sustainable fuel, using sunlight as the power source.

We can build a circular, sustainable economy 鈥� if we have the political will to do it

Erwin Reisner

Sayan Kar

Solar-powered flow reactor

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥� on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Electrified charcoal 鈥榮ponge鈥� can soak up CO2 directly from the air

sc604 — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 15:00:10 +0000

Researchers from the 探花直播 of Cambridge used a method similar to charging a battery to instead charge activated charcoal, which is often used in household water filters.

By charging the charcoal 鈥榮ponge鈥� with ions that form reversible bonds with CO2, the researchers found the charged material could successfully capture CO2 directly from the air.

探花直播charged charcoal sponge is also potentially more energy efficient than current carbon capture approaches, since it requires much lower temperatures to remove the captured CO2 so it can be stored. 探花直播results are reported in the journal Nature.

鈥淐apturing carbon emissions from the atmosphere is a last resort, but given the scale of the climate emergency, it鈥檚 something we need to investigate,鈥� said Dr Alexander Forse from the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, who led the research. 鈥� 探花直播first and most urgent thing we鈥檝e got to do is reduce carbon emissions worldwide, but greenhouse gas removal is also thought to be necessary to achieve net zero emissions and limit the worst effects of climate change. Realistically, we鈥檝e got to do everything we can.鈥�

Direct air capture, which uses sponge-like materials to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, is one potential approach for carbon capture, but current approaches are expensive, require high temperatures and the use of natural gas, and lack stability.

鈥淪ome promising work has been done on using porous materials for carbon capture from the atmosphere,鈥� said Forse. 鈥淲e wanted to see if activated charcoal might be an option, since it鈥檚 cheap, stable and made at scale.鈥�

Activated charcoal is used in many purification applications, such as water filters, but normally it can鈥檛 capture and hold CO2 from the air. Forse and his colleagues proposed that if activated charcoal could be charged, like a battery, it could be a suitable material for carbon capture.

When charging a battery, charged ions are inserted into one of the battery鈥檚 electrodes. 探花直播researchers hypothesised that charging activated charcoal with chemical compounds called hydroxides would make it suitable for carbon capture, since hydroxides form reversible bonds with CO2.

探花直播team used a battery-like charging process to charge an inexpensive activated charcoal cloth with hydroxide ions. In this process, the cloth essentially acts like an electrode in a battery, and hydroxide ions accumulate in the tiny pores of the charcoal. At the end of the charging process, the charcoal is removed from the 鈥渂attery鈥�, washed and dried.

Tests of the charged charcoal sponge showed that it could successfully capture CO2 directly from the air, thanks to the bonding mechanism of the hydroxides.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a new way to make materials, using a battery-like process,鈥� said Forse. 鈥淎nd the rates of CO2 capture are already comparable to incumbent materials. But what鈥檚 even more promising is this method could be far less energy-intensive, since we don鈥檛 require high temperatures to collect the CO2 and regenerate the charcoal sponge.鈥�

To collect the CO2 from the charcoal so it can be purified and stored, the material is heated to reverse the hydroxide-CO2 bonds. In most materials currently used for CO2 capture from air, the materials need to be heated to temperatures as high as 900掳C, often using natural gas. However, the charged charcoal sponges developed by the Cambridge team only require heating to 90-100掳C, temperatures that can be achieved using renewable electricity. 探花直播materials are heated through resistive heating, which essentially heats them from the inside out, making the process faster and less energy-intensive.

探花直播materials do, however, have limitations that the researchers are now working on. 鈥淲e are working now to increase the quantity of carbon dioxide that can be captured, and in particular under humid conditions where our performance decreases,鈥� said Forse.

探花直播researchers say their approach could be useful in fields beyond carbon capture, since the pores in the charcoal and the ions inserted into them can be fine-tuned to capture a range of molecules.

鈥淭his approach was a kind of crazy idea we came up with during the Covid-19 lockdowns, so it鈥檚 always exciting when these ideas actually work,鈥� said Forse. 鈥淭his approach opens a door to making all kinds of materials for different applications, in a way that鈥檚 simple and energy-efficient.鈥�

A patent has been filed and the research is being commercialised with the support of Cambridge Enterprise, the 探花直播鈥檚 commercialisation arm.

探花直播research was supported in part by the Leverhulme Trust, the Royal Society, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge.

聽

Reference:
Huaiguang Li et al. 鈥�Capturing carbon dioxide from air with charged sorbents.鈥� Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07449-2

Researchers have developed a low-cost, energy-efficient method for making materials that can capture carbon dioxide directly from the air.

探花直播first and most urgent thing we鈥檝e got to do is reduce carbon emissions worldwide, but greenhouse gas removal is also thought to be necessary to achieve net zero emissions and limit the worst effects of climate change. Realistically, we鈥檝e got to do everything we can

Alex Forse

Sample of activated charcoal used to capture carbon dioxide

Yes

Clean, sustainable fuels made 鈥榝rom thin air鈥� and plastic waste

sc604 — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:15:53 +0000

探花直播researchers, from the 探花直播 of Cambridge, developed a solar-powered reactor that converts captured CO2 and plastic waste into sustainable fuels and other valuable chemical products. In tests, CO2 was converted into syngas, a key building block for sustainable liquid fuels, and plastic bottles were converted into glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry.

Unlike earlier tests of their solar fuels technology however, the team took CO2 from real-world sources 鈥� such as industrial exhaust or the air itself. 探花直播researchers were able to capture and concentrate the CO2 and convert it into sustainable fuel.

Although improvements are needed before this technology can be used at an industrial scale, the results, reported in the journal Joule, represent another important step toward the production of clean fuels to power the economy, without the need for environmentally destructive oil and gas extraction.

For several years, Professor Erwin Reisner鈥檚 research group, based in the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, has been developing sustainable, net-zero carbon fuels inspired by photosynthesis 鈥� the process by which plants convert sunlight into food 鈥� using artificial leaves. These artificial leaves convert CO2 and water into fuels using just the power of the sun.

To date, their solar-driven experiments have used pure, concentrated CO2 from a cylinder, but for the technology to be of practical use, it needs to be able to actively capture CO2 from industrial processes, or directly from the air. However, since CO2 is just one of many types of molecules in the air we breathe, making this technology selective enough to convert highly diluted CO2 is a huge technical challenge.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not just interested in decarbonisation, but de-fossilisation 鈥� we need to completely eliminate fossil fuels in order to create a truly circular economy,鈥� said Reisner. 鈥淚n the medium term, this technology could help reduce carbon emissions by capturing them from industry and turning them into something useful, but ultimately, we need to cut fossil fuels out of the equation entirely and capture CO2 from the air.鈥�

探花直播researchers took their inspiration from carbon capture and storage (CCS), where CO2 is captured and then pumped and stored underground.

鈥淐CS is a technology that鈥檚 popular with the fossil fuel industry as a way to reduce carbon emissions while continuing oil and gas exploration,鈥� said Reisner. 鈥淏ut if instead of carbon capture and storage, we had carbon capture and utilisation, we could make something useful from CO2 instead of burying it underground, with unknown long-term consequences, and eliminate the use of fossil fuels.鈥�

探花直播researchers adapted their solar-driven technology so that it works with flue gas or directly from the air, converting CO2 and plastics into fuel and chemicals using only the power of the sun.

By bubbling air through the system containing an alkaline solution, the CO2 selectively gets trapped, and the other gases present in air, such as nitrogen and oxygen, harmlessly bubble out. This bubbling process allows the researchers to concentrate the CO2 from air in solution, making it easier to work with.

探花直播integrated system contains a photocathode and an anode. 探花直播system has two compartments: on one side is captured CO2 solution that gets converted into syngas, a simple fuel. On the other plastics are converted into useful chemicals using only sunlight. 聽

鈥� 探花直播plastic component is an important trick to this system,鈥� said co-first author Dr Motiar Rahaman. 鈥淐apturing and using CO2 from the air makes the chemistry more difficult. But, if we add plastic waste to the system, the plastic donates electrons to the CO2. 探花直播plastic breaks down to glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry, and the CO2 is converted into syngas, which is a simple fuel.鈥�

鈥淭his solar-powered system takes two harmful waste products 鈥� plastic and carbon emissions 鈥� and converts them into something truly useful,鈥� said co-first author Dr Sayan Kar.

鈥淚nstead of storing CO2 underground, like in CCS, we can capture it from the air and make clean fuel from it,鈥� said Rahaman. 鈥淭his way, we can cut out the fossil fuel industry from the process of fuel production, which can hopefully help us avoid climate destruction.鈥�

鈥� 探花直播fact that we can effectively take CO2 from air and make something useful from it is special,鈥� said Kar. 鈥淚t鈥檚 satisfying to see that we can actually do it using only sunlight.鈥�

探花直播scientists are currently working on a bench-top demonstrator device with improved efficiency and practicality to highlight the benefits of coupling direct air capture with CO2 utilisation as a path to a zero-carbon future.

探花直播research was supported in part by the Weizmann Institute of Science, the European Commission Marie Sk艂odowska-Curie Fellowship, the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Erwin Reisner is a Fellow and Motiar Rahaman is a Research Associate of St John鈥檚 College, Cambridge. Erwin Reisner leads the Cambridge Circular Plastics Centre (CirPlas), which aims to eliminate plastic waste by combining blue-sky thinking with practical measures.

聽

Reference:
Sayan Kar, Motiar Rahaman et al. 鈥�Integrated Capture and Solar-driven Utilization of CO2 from Flue Gas and Air.鈥� Joule (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2023.05.022

For more information on聽energy-related research in Cambridge, please visit聽Energy聽IRC, which brings together Cambridge鈥檚 research knowledge and expertise, in collaboration with global partners, to create solutions for a sustainable and resilient energy landscape for generations to come.聽

Researchers have demonstrated how carbon dioxide can be captured from industrial processes 鈥� or even directly from the air 鈥� and transformed into clean, sustainable fuels using just the energy from the sun.

We鈥檙e not just interested in decarbonisation, but de-fossilisation 鈥� we need to completely eliminate fossil fuels in order to create a truly circular economy

Erwin Reisner

Ariffin Mohamad Annuar

Carbon capture from air and its photoelectrochemical conversion into fuel with simultaneous waste plastic conversion into chemicals.

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.聽 All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥� as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Offshore carbon storage deployment and research needs to scale up for UK to deliver net zero pledge, says report

sc604 — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 23:20:17 +0000

Published by the Royal Society and led by 探花直播 of Cambridge researchers, Locked Away 鈥� Geological Carbon Storage explores the latest evidence and technical considerations for permanently storing CO2 by pumping it into deep saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas fields offshore.

Alongside sustained reductions in carbon emissions, international bodies and the UK鈥檚 Committee on Climate Change identified carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a critical technology in most possible routes to achieving net zero. 聽

However, the levels of CCS deployment globally have been slow and, globally, are 鈥榳ell below those anticipated to be needed to limit global warming to 1.5掳C, or 2掳C鈥�, the report warns.

鈥淕eological carbon storage will be an essential part of our long-term energy transition, both in storing emissions from hard-to-decarbonise industries, and for longer-term removal of CO2 through direct air capture,鈥� said Professor Andy Woods from Cambridge鈥檚 Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF), chair of the report鈥檚 working group.

鈥� 探花直播UK鈥檚 access to potential storage sites in its offshore waters, along with a strong industrial base and regulatory and assurance environment, mean this could be an important industry.

鈥淏ut thousands of wells are likely to be needed globally, and each new subsurface reservoir can take years to develop to ensure its suitability.鈥�

Scaling up

探花直播policy briefing considers the latest geoscience evidence and lessons from current and planned CCS projects that could inform policymakers if they pursue geological carbon storage.

It also looks at the challenges of scaling up CCS, including outstanding research and policy questions relating to transport, storage, monitoring, sustainable business models and incentives.

探花直播IPCC special report on global warming of 1.5掳C and research by the International Energy Agency suggest that 7-8 gigatonnes of CO2 will need to be stored globally each year by 2050 to keep warming below 1.5掳C: this represents over 20% of present global annual fossil fuel and industrial emissions (roughly 34 gigatonnes of CO2 per year).

By 2100, cumulative storage of between 350-1200 gigatonnes of CO2 is likely to be needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

For the UK to deliver on its net zero carbon emissions pledge, it needs to develop new wells 鈥� and the associated injection, transport and storage infrastructure 鈥� capable of storing about 75-175 megatonnes of CO2 every year by 2050, according to the UK North Sea Transition Authority.

With CO2 injection rates currently constrained by pressurisation limits, and a 5-7 year timeframe to deploy a new reservoir, the report鈥檚 expert working group estimates this will require the equivalent of around one new carbon storage system, capable of injecting 4-5 megatonnes of CO2 per year, being added each year to 2050.

Sustained investment

To date, the upfront capital costs, lack of sufficient and predictable incentives to support operating costs, and concerns over the social acceptability in many jurisdictions have contributed to a global under-deployment of CCS.

探花直播Global CCS Institute鈥檚 2021 survey lists 27 CCS projects as being operational, capturing 36.6 megatonnes of CO2 per year, with a further 62 projects listed as either in construction or advanced development. If successfully deployed, the combined capture potential would be 86.4 megatonnes of CO2 per year.

A UK target of delivering CCS in four industrial clusters, set under the previous government, aims to capture and store around 20-30 megatonnes of CO2 each year. With Phase 1 sites, in the East Coast Cluster (Teesside plus Humber) and HyNet in the Northwest, targeting delivery in the middle of this decade.聽

Scaling up required capacity, the report says, demands an enormous and continued global investment each year to 2050 to build the injection wells, transport networks, monitoring technologies, and a skilled workforce, to install hundreds of new wells each year.

鈥淲e have technology to store and monitor carbon in this way,鈥� said Woods.

鈥淏ut as deployment of these technologies rolls out, there will likely be many new challenges, especially since each storage reservoir has its own unique geological structure and setting.

鈥淪o we need to continue to invest in research, and the policy and regulatory frameworks that are required to scale up safely and at pace.鈥�

In particular, the report highlights the need to understand the storage capacity and properties of different geological formations; the critical pressures which might cause seal rocks to fail and leak; different monitoring strategies for detecting CO2 leaks, new understanding of some of the geochemical processes; and the potential to increase capacity in old wells.

There is also a need to for ongoing effective public dialogue to highlight the importance of carbon storage in mitigating climate change, and to understand and address the concerns of communities and citizens.

Adapted from a story by the Royal Society.

探花直播UK will need to step up research and deployment of new offshore carbon storage wells if it is to achieve the capacity required to deliver its net zero emissions plans, a new report says.

Geological carbon storage will be an essential part of our long-term energy transition, both in storing emissions from hard-to-decarbonise industries, and for longer-term removal of CO2 through direct air capture

Andy Woods

Daniela Paola Alchapar via Unsplash

Rock abstract

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.聽 All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥� as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Fluid mechanics and the energy transition

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 09:24:46 +0000

Decarbonisation of the energy system is the greatest challenge we face. At Cambridge鈥檚 Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, world-leading researchers in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and surface science are working to develop the solutions we need to replace fossil fuels and protect our planet.

Low-cost battery-like device absorbs CO2 emissions while it charges

cr696 — Thu, 19 May 2022 14:50:54 +0000

探花直播supercapacitor device, which is similar to a rechargeable battery, is the size of a two-pence coin, and is made in part from sustainable materials including coconut shells and seawater.

Designed by researchers from the 探花直播 of Cambridge, the supercapacitor could help power carbon capture and storage technologies at much lower cost. Around 35 billion tonnes of CO2 are released into the atmosphere per year and solutions are urgently needed to eliminate these emissions and address the climate crisis. 探花直播most advanced carbon capture technologies currently require large amounts of energy and are expensive.

探花直播supercapacitor consists of two electrodes of positive and negative charge. In work led by Trevor Binford while completing his Master鈥檚 degree at Cambridge, the team tried alternating from a negative to a positive voltage to extend the charging time from previous experiments. This improved the supercapacitor鈥檚 ability to capture carbon.

鈥淲e found that that by slowly alternating the current between the plates we can capture double the amount of CO2 than before,鈥� said Dr Alexander Forse from Cambridge鈥檚 Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, who led the research.

鈥� 探花直播charging-discharging process of our supercapacitor potentially uses less energy than the amine heating process used in industry now,鈥� said Forse. 鈥淥ur next questions will involve investigating the precise mechanisms of CO2 capture and improving them. Then it will be a question of scaling up.鈥�

探花直播results are reported in the journal Nanoscale.

A supercapacitor is similar to a rechargeable battery but the main difference is in how the two devices store charge. A battery uses chemical reactions to store and release charge, whereas a supercapacitor does not rely on chemical reactions. Instead, it relies on the movement of electrons between electrodes, so it takes longer to degrade and has a longer lifespan.

鈥� 探花直播trade-off is that supercapacitors can鈥檛 store as much charge as batteries, but for something like carbon capture we would prioritise durability,鈥� said co-author Grace Mapstone. 鈥� 探花直播best part is that the materials used to make supercapacitors are cheap and abundant. 探花直播electrodes are made of carbon, which comes from waste coconut shells.

鈥淲e want to use materials that are inert, that don鈥檛 harm environments, and that we need to dispose of less frequently. For example, the CO2 dissolves into a water-based electrolyte which is basically seawater.鈥�

However, this supercapacitor does not absorb CO2 spontaneously: it must be charging to draw in CO2. When the electrodes become charged, the negative plate draws in the CO2 gas, while ignoring other emissions, such as oxygen, nitrogen and water, which don鈥檛 contribute to climate change. Using this method, the supercapacitor both captures carbon and stores energy.

Co-author Dr Israel Temprano contributed to the project by developing a gas analysis technique for the device. 探花直播technique uses a pressure sensor that responds to changes in gas adsorption in the electrochemical device. 探花直播results from Temprano鈥檚 contribution help narrow down the precise mechanism at play inside the supercapacitor when CO2 is absorbed and released. Understanding these mechanisms, the possible losses, and the routes of degradation are all essential before the supercapacitor can be scaled up.

鈥淭his field of research is very new so the precise mechanism working inside the supercapacitor still isn鈥檛 known,鈥� said Temprano.

探花直播research was funded by a Future Leaders Fellowship to Dr Forse, a UK Research and Innovation scheme developing the next wave of world-class research and innovation.

Reference:
Trevor B聽Binford, Grace Mapstone, Israel Temprano, and Alexander C聽Forse. 'Enhancing the capacity of supercapacitive swing adsorption CO2 capture by tuning charging protocols.' Nanoscale (2022). DOI:聽10.1039/D2NR00748G

Researchers have developed a low-cost device that can selectively capture carbon dioxide gas while it charges. Then, when it discharges, the CO2 can be released in a controlled way and collected to be reused or disposed of responsibly.

We found that that by slowly alternating the current between the plates we can capture double the amount of CO2 than before

Alexander Forse

Gabriella Bocchetti

Co-authors Israel Temprano and Grace Mapstone

Yes

Cambridge joins international partners in Singapore as country's flagship research programme celebrates 10th anniversary

ag236 — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 09:50:51 +0000

探花直播Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) was established in 2007, with funding from Singapore鈥檚 National Research Foundation (NRF), to allow research-intensive institutions from all over the world to set up research centres in Singapore and establish research partnerships with local universities.

Today, CREATE supports collaborations between four Singaporean universities 鈥� the National 探花直播 of Singapore (NUS), the Nanyang Technological 探花直播 (NTU), the Singapore 探花直播 of Technology and Design (SUTD) and the Singapore Management 探花直播 (SMU) 鈥� and seven international partners 鈥� ETH Zurich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technical 探花直播 of Munich, Hebrew 探花直播 of Jerusalem, 探花直播 of California, Berkeley, Shanghai Jiao Tong 探花直播 and the 探花直播 of Cambridge.

To mark its 10th聽anniversary, CREATE held an international symposium attended by university leaders as well as Singapore's former president, Dr Tony Tan.

Speaking at the聽event on 1 December,聽Mr Heng Swee Keat, Singapore鈥檚 Minister for Finance and Deputy Chairman of the NRF said:

鈥淲e designed CREATE to encourage interaction not just across a range of disciplines and cultures, but also of perspectives 鈥� from dreamers to researchers, designers and users 鈥� thereby fuelling exchanges between the spheres of research and innovation.鈥�

鈥淏y bringing together researchers, policy makers and end users, CREATE enables serendipitous interactions and discovery. It creates a research environment that is richer than the sum of its parts, allowing researchers to innovate and provide solutions to real world problems.鈥�

鈥淭oday,鈥� he added, 鈥淐REATE is an international research hub, built on strong institutional partnerships, involving almost 1,100 people from over 40 countries. CREATE鈥檚 projects are relevant to Singapore and impactful on the global level.鈥�

CARES: a hub for research collaboration

探花直播Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the 探花直播 of Cambridge, was set up as one of CREATE鈥檚 collaborative initiatives in April 2013. It hosts a number of research collaborations between the 探花直播 of Cambridge, NTU, NUS and industrial partners in Singapore and elsewhere.

Representing CARES at the event, its Director, Prof. Markus Kraft, explained: 鈥淐ARES creates and fosters cutting-edge science in the area of energy efficiency in chemical technologies.聽We want to do first class research, world-leading research. We want to understand the world better. And we want to contribute to some of the pressing problems facing mankind 鈥� in particular, global warming."

Prof. Gehan Amaratunga, Professor of Engineering at the 探花直播 of Cambridge, was involved in CARES from its inception: 鈥淐ARES is driven by the Cambridge attitude to research: to think about things deeply, and to deliver results that are significant and worthwhile. But that is coupled with the Singapore culture of hard work, and results-driven research. 探花直播mixture of those two research cultures under the CARES umbrella generates a unique symbiosis.鈥�

He adds: 鈥淚t is worth noting that CARES was the first time that the 探花直播 of Cambridge had established anything under its name outside of Cambridge. 探花直播Singaporean government has put resources into research, and is keen for international researchers to come and work in Singapore. From the Cambridge perspective, it gives us an opportunity to globalise our research by engaging in a location that is an Asian hub, directly in between Asia鈥檚 two largest population centres 鈥� India and China. Singapore is a melting pot where researchers from the entire region are present. 探花直播impact of what we do in Singapore will be felt all over Asia.鈥�

Reducing carbon footprint and energy demand

CARES鈥� first research programme聽is聽the聽Cambridge Centre for Carbon Reduction in Chemical Technology (C4T), a partnership between Cambridge and Singapore set up in 2013 to tackle the problem of assessing and reducing the carbon footprint of the petrochemical plants and electrical network on Singapore鈥檚 Jurong Island. Since its inception, it has brought together researchers in fields including Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Information Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Metallurgy.

Lowering the cost聽of CO鈧偮燾apture and developing technologies for waste heat utilisation have been among the main drivers for C4T鈥檚 research. It addresses the problem of carbon abatement in chemical technologies though Interdisciplinary Research Programmes that combine state-of-the-art experimental analysis with advanced modelling research.

Speaking at CREATE鈥檚 10th anniversary event in Singapore, Dr聽Lim聽Mei Qi, Project Officer for CARES, explained: 鈥淐4T proposes ways of reducing the carbon footprint聽of Singapore while supporting economic growth. To build upon CARES鈥� early success we will continue to engage with Singapore's stakeholders, including government agencies, policymakers, and academic and industrial research organisations. We hope, by doing so, to positively contribute to Singapore鈥檚 ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change.鈥�

A laboratory built from scratch 鈥� via Skype

Dr Jethro Akroyd, Senior Research Associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology鈥檚 Computational Modelling Group,聽worked on the design of聽the CARES laboratory in Singapore.

Today he spends most of his time supervising CARES students based in Cambridge, but he remembers the early challenges of designing lab space remotely: 鈥淲e communicated with the architects and our external consultant in Singapore via Skype. We often had Skype meetings at聽5:30聽in the morning 鈥� the only time people were available both in Singapore and in Cambridge. Those were long days.鈥�

鈥淥ne of the biggest difficulties was explaining to people in Singapore what was required in the laboratories in order to deliver flexible research space. And even once we figured out what we wanted, we had to work out how to fit this into the physical constraints of the space that was available at CREATE. Imagine sitting in a small, cold room on a dark Cambridge morning trying to explain complicated ideas to a team on the other side of the world who can only see you via a video link.鈥�

鈥淲e built up a very successful working relationship with the consultant and the architects. This culminated in my first visit to Singapore, during the design process, when we had our first face-to-face meeting as a team. That was very special.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 been great to see designs you worked out on paper in reality, and you can see how the research space was going to be used in order to understand the fundamental combustion and pollutant formation processes that are really at the heart of our role in the research project.鈥�

In June 2017, the CARES C4T Laboratory was awarded the BCA Green Mark for Laboratories Platinum Award, in recognition of its sustainable efforts and commitment to reduce the environmental impact of lab operations.

An industrial park simulator

CARES C4T鈥檚 flagship project聽is the J-Park Simulator (JPS) 鈥� a tool for the design, analysis and operation optimisation of eco-industrial parks developed聽by C4T researchers. It aims to allow sector agencies, industry and infrastructure providers to model the impact of different 鈥渨hat-if鈥� scenarios in real time. 探花直播simulator is able to analyse different scenarios affecting chemical processes, electricity grid and building management to provide the visual information needed to support optimisation, decision-making and scenario analysis.

鈥淚n order to reach an optimum symbiotic relationship among industries and networks, all resources need to be taken into consideration simultaneously 鈥� this is the idea behind J-Park Simulator," explained Dr聽Lim.

Split-site PhD

Another successful initiative has been聽the聽Cambridge-CARES聽studentship聽programme, which allows Cambridge PhD students to spend two years based in Singapore with the C4T team.

Jacob Martin is a third-year PhD student at CARES currently doing research into how to stop soot from forming in engines.

鈥淪omething that I like about CARES is being able to work with a lot of different people from different universities. Because we are physically located within the CREATE tower, it is easier to interact with other universities and do a lot of research with other interest groups. And because we have access to NUS鈥� equipment, we can expand what we are doing in Cambridge. 探花直播availability of resources has been a real selling point for the programme.鈥�

He cites the Visiting Scientists scheme as helping to establish international research connections. This invitation-only programme attracts eminent professors from around the globe, such as聽Emeritus Professor Karl Johan 脜str枚m from the Department of Automatic Control, LTH, Lund 探花直播, to聽stay and work with C4T researchers in Singapore for a few weeks.

Jacob hopes that his research will lead to new technologies to reduce pollution from diesel engines, which has an impact on climate as well as on human health.

鈥淚t always helps to have more connections in research. Being at CARES will definitely be helpful to establish collaborations not only in Asia but also with universities in America. There are many benefits to collaboration. You can achieve a lot more. 探花直播more minds you put to a problem, the faster you can solve it.鈥�

He adds: 鈥淗aving people with different cultural backgrounds allows for new and interesting solutions to problems. Cambridge has a particular way of dealing with problems 鈥撀爁ocus, focus, focus, and really nail the fundamentals. Sometimes that means you lose a bit of perspective. Something that鈥檚 been really good about collaborating with people in Singapore is that it鈥檚 less about the minutiae and more about the big picture. Singapore is facing a lot of big problems to do with climate change, energy, water. It鈥檚 small enough that you can make big changes, and use it as a model for other cities all over the world.鈥�

Teaming up

CREATE makes this collaboration possible by supporting projects through the聽Intra-CREATE programme. A recent example is the three-year project involving researchers from the 探花直播 of Cambridge, the 探花直播 of California, Berkeley, the National 探花直播 of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological 探花直播 (NTU), which was recently awarded SGD$5m (拢2.8m) by Singapore鈥檚 National Research Foundation.

探花直播project, which will start in January 2018, seeks to develop ways of transforming carbon dioxide (CO鈧�) emitted as part of the industrial process into compounds that are useful in the chemical industry supply chain. It will be co-led by Prof. Alexei Lapkin ( 探花直播 of Cambridge/CARES) and Prof. Joel Ager (UC-Berkeley and聽Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS Ltd)).

Looking ahead

After a successful start, CARES is now taking stock of the knowledge created over the past four years and planning for its next phase.

Prof Markus Kraft (CARES' Director) commented: 鈥淲e have identified opportunities to save over eight million tonnes of CO鈧偮爌er year for Singapore 鈥� this is about 20% of their annual emissions. 探花直播idea of聽C4T Phase 2 is聽to take this forward. At the core of the proposal for聽C4T聽Phase聽Two is to look at ideas generated in聽Phase聽One, take them much closer to the market and let them be adopted by industry.鈥�

鈥淥ne of the ideas we developed in聽Phase聽One was to blend biodiesel with diesel fuel for road transport. We鈥檝e shown this can save about one million tonnes per year of CO鈧偮爁or Singapore. What we鈥檙e now looking at in聽Phase聽Two is whether we can do anything similar for marine shipping traffic. This has the potential to save something like another one million tonnes of CO鈧偮爄n Singapore, but it also has the potential to be adopted worldwide. This could have a much broader global impact, far beyond just the shipping in Singapore Strait.鈥�

For further information on CARES and the C4T research programme please contact Ms Louise Renwick, CARES Communications and External Affairs Executive, caresco@hermes.cam.ac.uk,; Tel: +6566015447聽

An international symposium at Singapore鈥檚 CREATE campus highlights the global challenges of sustainable energy and suggests innovative ways of reducing industry鈥檚 carbon footprint聽

We want to do first-class research. We want to understand the world better. And we want to contribute to some of the pressing problems facing mankind 鈥� in particular, global warming.

Markus Kraft, Director of CARES

CREATE tower, Singapore

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Carbon capture: universities and industry work together to tackle emissions

sc604 — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 07:12:18 +0000

探花直播world is not going carbon-free any time soon: that much is clear. Developed and developing countries alike rely on fossil fuels for transport, industry and power, all of which release CO₂ into the atmosphere. But as sea levels rise, 鈥榰nprecedented鈥� weather events become commonplace and the polar ice caps melt, how can we balance our use of fossil fuels with the imperative to combat the catastrophic effects of climate change?

鈥淓verything suggests that we won鈥檛 be able to stop burning carbon-based fuels, particularly in rapidly developing countries like India and China,鈥� says Professor Mike Bickle of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Earth Sciences. 鈥淎long with increasing use of renewable energy and improved energy efficiency, one way to cope with that is to use carbon capture and storage 鈥� and there is no technical reason why it can鈥檛 be deployed right now.鈥�

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a promising and practical solution to drastically reducing carbon emissions, but it has had a stilted development pathway to date. In 2015, the UK government cancelled a 拢1 billion competition for CCS technology six months before it was due to be awarded, citing high costs. Just one year later, a high-level advisory group appointed by ministers recommended that establishing a CCS industry in the UK now could save the government and consumers billions per year from the cost of meeting climate change targets.

CCS is the only way of mitigating the 20% of CO₂ emissions from industrial processes 鈥� such as cement manufacturing and steel making, for which there is no obvious alternative 鈥� to help meet the world鈥檚 commitments to limit warming to below 2^oC. It works by trapping the CO₂ emitted from burning fossil fuels, which is then cooled, liquefied and pumped deep underground into geological formations, saline aquifers or disused oil and gas fields. Results from lab-based tests, and from working CCS sites such as Sleipner in the North Sea, suggest that carbon can be safely stored underground in this way for 10,000 years or more.

鈥� 探花直播big companies understand the science of climate change, and they understand that we鈥檝e got to invest in technologies like CCS now, before it鈥檚 too late,鈥� says Dr Jerome Neufeld of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and Department of Earth Sciences. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 a tricky business running an industry where nobody is charging for carbon.鈥�

鈥淓veryone always wants the cheapest option, so without some form of carbon tax, it鈥檚 going to be difficult to get CCS off the ground at the scale that鈥檚 needed,鈥� says Bickle. 鈥淏ut if you look at the cost of electricity produced from gas or coal with CCS added, it鈥檚 very similar to the cost of electricity from solar or wind. So if governments put a proper carbon charge in place, renewables and CCS would compete with each other on a relatively even playing field, and companies would have the economic incentive to invest in CCS.鈥�

Bickle and Neufeld are following discussions about CCS closely because, along with collaborators from Stanford and Melbourne Universities, they have recently started a new CCS project with the support of BHP, one of the world鈥檚 largest mining and materials companies.

探花直播three-year project will develop and improve methods for the long-term storage of CO₂, and will test them at Otway in southern Australia, one of the largest CCS test sites in the world. Using a mix of theoretical modelling and small-, medium- and large-scale experiments, the researchers hope to significantly increase the types of sites where CCS is possible, including in China and developing economies.

In most current CCS schemes, CO₂ is stored in porous underground rock formations with a thick layer of non-porous rock, such as shale, on top. 探花直播top layer provides extra insurance that the relatively light CO₂ will not escape.

探花直播new research, which will support future large-scale CO₂ storage, will consider whether CO₂ could be effectively trapped without the top seal of impermeable rock, meaning that CCS could be deployed in a wider range of environments. Their research findings will be made publicly available to accelerate the broader deployment of CCS.

鈥淲e are seeing a growing acknowledgement from industry, governments and society that to meet emissions reductions targets we are going to need to accelerate the use of this technology 鈥� we simply can鈥檛 do it quickly enough without CCS across both power generation and industry,鈥� says BHP Vice President of Sustainability and Climate Change, Dr Fiona Wild. 鈥淲e know CCS technology works and is proven. Our focus at BHP is on how we can help make sure the world has access to the information required to make it work at scale in a cost effective and timely way.鈥�

During the project, Stanford researchers will measure the rate at which porous rock can trap CO₂ using small-scale experiments on rock samples at reservoir conditions, while the Cambridge researchers will be using larger analogue models, in the order of metres or tens of metres. 探花直播Melbourne-based researchers will use large-scale numerical simulations of complex geological settings.

鈥淥ne of the things this collaboration will really open up is the ability to deploy CCS almost anywhere,鈥� says Neufeld, who is also affiliated with Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Earth Sciences and the BP Institute. 鈥淲e know that CO₂ can be safely trapped in porous rock with a seal of shale on top, but the early results from Otway have shown that even without the impenetrable seal, CO₂ can be trapped just as effectively.鈥�

When CO₂ is pumped into underground saline aquifers, it is in a 鈥榮uper-critical鈥� phase: not quite a liquid and not quite a gas. 探花直播super-critical CO₂ is less dense than the salt water, and so has a tendency to run uphill, but it鈥檚 been found that surface tension between the salt water and the rock is quite effective at pinning the CO₂ in place so that it can鈥檛 escape. This phenomenon, known as capillary trapping, is also observed when water is held in a sponge.

鈥� 探花直播results from Otway show that if you inject CO₂ into a heterogeneous reservoir, it will mix with the salt water and capillary trapping will pin it there quite effectively, so it opens up a much broader range of potential carbon storage sites,鈥� says Bickle.

鈥淗owever, we need to start deploying CCS now, and the biggest challenges we face are economics and policy. If these prevent us from doing anything until it鈥檚 too late, and we鈥檙e at a stage when we鈥檇 have to start capturing carbon directly from the atmosphere, it will be far more expensive. By not starting CCS now, we鈥檙e building false economies.鈥�

An international collaboration between universities and industry will further develop carbon capture and storage technology 鈥� one of the best hopes for drastically reducing carbon emissions 鈥� so that it can be deployed in a wider range of sites around the world.

We need to start deploying CCS now, and the biggest challenges we face are economics and policy. If we鈥檙e at a stage when we鈥檇 have to start capturing carbon directly from the atmosphere, it will be far more expensive.

Mike Bickle

Jerome Neufeld

Modelling CCS

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes