Summary of ‘A cost-effective and energy-efficient approach to carbon capture’

Scientists have developed a slurry-based process that can revolutionize carbon capture. The slurry, consisting of a penetrable powder suspended in a glycol liquid mixture, offers an efficient process of carbon capture while maintaining the lower costs and energy efficiency.

I feel the reason that this author wrote this article is to help bring awareness that there is now a new idea that can make this world more environmentally friendly. He has brought it to attention that this slurry has been proven to do what older inventions couldn’t. Therefore, its more efficient in comparison to power plants since it doesn't only use solids or only liquids but a combination of both. As well, it shows that its able to separate from CO2 solid or liquid only materials. Therefore, this means that it doesn't require excessive amounts of energy (e.g. boiling) in order to regenerate, which increases its overall energy efficiency. All in all, its a very good environmental practice and other countries should invest in this in order to maximize efficiency.

Berend Smit is the director of the Energy Center at EPFL and inventor of slurry. He came up with the word slurry since it’s made of solids and liquid. The pores of the substances that absorb CO22 are too large and therefore water could fill them and they wouldn't be able to capture the CO2. Therefore, he examined another material, which had pores big enough to capture CO22 but small enough to prevent glycol, the liquid from entering. Therefore, this material is called ZIF-8.

I agree with the author and creator of this idea since its more environmentally friendly. As well, as the years have passed carbon dioxide has increased due to certain human activities and practices. Thus, it’s good to hear that there’s finally a material that can separate from CO22 molecules and now hopefully the chances of the earth going through global warming and climate change have decreased significantly.

One point that I found interesting while reading this article was that the substance ZIF-8 is a suitable material for capturing carbon since it has good chemical and thermal stability, which is great when having to repeat regenerating cycles. In conclusion, its an excellent solution overall.

Scientists from EPFL, UC Berkley and Beijing all collaborated and combined