PI: Arup SenGupta

Co-PI(s): Carlos Romero

University: Lehigh University

Industry partner: Purolite

Decarbonizing or reducing CO2 from the atmosphere to reverse the onslaught of global warming or climate change has evolved as the foremost challenge of this century confronting human race. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is quite low, less than 400 mg/L. Consequently, most of the emphasis has gravitated toward reducing carbon emission and sequestering CO2 from the stationary sources releasing high concentration of CO2. Here we present a new approach where

  1. CO2 can be very selectively removed from ambient atmosphere by acid-base reaction aided by polymeric ion exchangers;
  2. CO2 absorbed in the first step can be subsequently released and recovered in pure form through an efficient regeneration process;
  3. only dilute acid and dilute base are needed for regeneration to complete the cyclic process;
  4. and acid and base are continuously generated by electrolysis of readily available salts using electricity through solar panels.

Most importantly, the proposed decarbonizing activity can be run and sustained without major involvement of governments and big companies, while reducing CO2 in the atmosphere. We will use specialty anion exchange resins from the Purolite Company in PA and carry out the experiment for CO2 capture from ambient atmosphere and its recovery through acid-base reaction. We also plan to use the recovered CO2 for our ongoing desalination work to treat municipal wastewater. We will also fabricate an electrolysis cell to produce acid and base from salts (e.g., NaCl and Na2SO4) and use them as regenerants. The entire process does not produce any waste. Solar energy may later be used to generate acid and base. The primary goals of the nine-month long project are to carry out necessary laboratory experiments to validate

  1. carbon dioxide can be continuously captured from atmosphere using appropriate polymeric anion exchangers;
  2. carbon dioxide can be recovered in pure form using an acid;
  3. and acid and base needed for the process can be produced in an electrolysis cell using solar panels. In essence, it is a negative emission technology that captures CO2 without needing any external energy.