Scientists Discover a New method to Capture Carbon dioxide in Prism-like crystals to Combat Global Warming

Scientists at  Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered a way to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the form of prism-like crystals and in the process combats global warming.

What is Global warming?

Global warming is the increase in temperature of earth atmosphere due to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide chloroform carbons and other pollutants. Global warming has several drastic effects some of which include a rise in sea levels, melting of polar ice caps and glaciers that in turn leads to the flooding of towns and cities of low-lying coastal areas.

What is Carbon Capture and Storage(CCS) technology?

CCS is a technology that can capture 90% of carbon dioxide released from the use of fossil fuels in industries for electricity generation and industrial process and preventing from getting released into the atmosphere.

Basically, Carbon capture and storage (CCS)  involves three parts:

• Capturing the carbon dioxide 
• Transporting the captured carbon dioxide and 
• Securely storing the carbon dioxide emissions underground. 

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Research Methodology:

The scientists developed a simple method wherein they used an aqueous solution of Guanidine. Guanidine is a colorless solid that dissolves in polar solvents (like water). It is used in the production of plastics and explosives. Scientists left the aqueous solution of Guanidine open to air and found that prism-like crystals are formed. They analyzed the crystals and found they contain carbonate in the that usually forms as result of the reaction of carbon dioxide with air with water. In other words, Guanidine solution can be used to capture carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.

The crystals so formed has low solubility and they can be separated from the solution by a normal filtration.The bound carbon dioxide (CO2) can be released by mild heating of the solids to 80-120 and that regenerates the guanidine for reuse.The scientists hope usage of the new process will improve the efficiency of existing carbon capture and storage(CCS) technology.

The research findings are published in the Journal Angewandte Chemie

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