Scientists have stumbled upon (not the website, mind you) a new material that is capable of capturing damaging carbon dioxide from power plants using a special technique used by the pharmaceutical industry to find new drugs. This material shares some similarities with sponge, and is known as ZIF-69. So far the brains in the labs claim that it is capable of holding up to 60 times its volume in carbon dioxide - one of the main reasons that scientists blame for the climate change that is happening in the world today. This compound, along with two dozen others just like it, were discovered using a technique known as high-throughput screening, is a parallel technique for testing chemicals. The new molecule can be utilized to capture carbon dioxide generated by power plants whenever coal, gas or biomass is burned. Sounds like this is the perfect solution for developing countries as they try to cut down on their greenhouse emissions.

According to Omar Yaghi, a professor of chemistry at UCLA, lead author of the paper, “We’re altering the environment irreversibly and something needs to be done or we might not have time to do anything about it. If you can capture carbon dioxide that goes a long way towards a cleaner environment.” Unfortunately, capturing carbon dioxide is easier said than done. You will first need to sort the CO2 molecule from other particles, and so far that is no mean task. those who have tried in the past used heat to trap such particles, but the use of heat requires energy which ultimately hurts the pocket. By making CO2 capture more efficient, it will dramatically reduce the process cost while making fossil fuel plants “cleaner” in the process.

I’m not sure about you, but fossil fuel companies seem to do all in their power to drag the implementation of renewable technologies as long as possible. I suppose that’s only logical as you don’t want your bread and butter business to be yanked from right under your nose.

Source: Wired