GHG Emissions, Industrial  -  July 29, 2020

ExxonMobil and partners discover new, efficient carbon capture material

ExxonMobil announced July 24 that through a collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, they have discovered a new material that could capture more than 90% of carbon emitted from industrial sources.

The material, known as tetraamine-functionalized metal-organic frameworks, is indicated to be able to capture carbon dioxide emissions up to six times more effectively than conventional amine-based carbon capture technology. This technology could be used to capture emissions from industrial sources like gas-fired power plants using low-temperature steam and thus less energy in the carbon capture process.

“This innovative hybrid porous material has so far proven to be more effective, requires less heating and cooling, and captures more CO2 than current materials,” Vijay Swarup, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, said in a statement. “Through collaborations with strong academic institutions and national labs like UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, we are developing a portfolio of lower-emissions energy solutions. This provides yet another example of one of the many new materials ExxonMobil is researching to reduce CO2 in the production of energy.”

This project has been eight years in the making and will now need to go through additional research and development in order to progress to a larger scale pilot and eventually to industrial scale.

“This exciting advance for carbon capture technology is an outstanding example of how scientists with diverse expertise from universities, national labs, and industry can come together to solve fundamental research challenges,” Jeffrey Long, professor of chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering at University of California, Berkeley and faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said in a statement. “We are grateful to have had such long-term research support from ExxonMobil, without which this discovery would not have been possible. I hope this success will serve to encourage further partnerships between industry and academic research labs.”

Share this valuable information with your colleagues using the buttons below: