A new plastic ’sponge’ could help biofuels scrub CO2 from the environment, says Wired magazine in this story about a new air-scrubbing technology announced in a rather dense article in the current edition of Science, headlined “Polymers with Cavities Tuned for Fast Selective Transport of Small Molecules and Ions.” (Abstract here.)
What’s that mean? It means researchers have created a plastic membrane that can allow C02 molecules to pass through while holding back other molecules, such as methane.
Wired:
The membrane could be a major advance in carbon capture — it’s four times better than current technologies at separating out CO2, one of the main culprits in global warming. The plastic acts as a molecular sponge, allowing only carbon dioxide to pass into it, while preventing larger molecules like methane from following suit. “We’ve made a better mousetrap,” said Benny Freeman, a University of Texas at Austin professor and co-author of a report on the material in Friday’s issue of Science. The plastic can handle 500 times more fuel than regular membranes while separating out molecules more efficiently, Freeman said.
Pictured: Dr. Steven Pas of CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering examines a polymer membrane.
