Carbon Capture
The alarming escalation of climate change due to CO2 emissions presents one of the most pressing challenges of our time. For several decades, the focus has been on slowing carbon emissions by capturing CO2 from industrial point sources. However, this approach doesn’t reduce the overall amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Direct air capture technology stands as a potential solution to this urgent problem. Yet, the challenge is formidable, especially considering the low atmospheric concentration of CO2 (around 400 ppm). Traditional CO2 sorption methods rely on either passive physisorption or energy-intensive chemisorption in equilibrium systems. These methods involve spontaneous adsorption and energy-required desorption, constraining the energy-efficient regeneration of adsorbents and limiting the capture capacity during each cycle. Designing an active adsorption process that can continuously transfer or pump CO2 from low-concentration air into adsorbent compartments presents a significant hurdle.
Low-Cost Porous Materials for Low-Energy Regeneration
The climate crisis is reshaping how we harvest, store, and consume energy globally. The pressing issue of climate change, driven largely by anthropogenic CO2 emissions, continues to be a global challenge. In 2023, global carbon emissions reached an all-time high, surpassing 40 billion tons, with nearly 37 billion tons attributed to fossil fuel combustion. However, current technologies, primarily relying on adsorbents or aqueous solutions, demand significant energy input for regeneration, representing a major hurdle for large-scale implementation. Our group at Duke is dedicated to tackling grand challenges in environmental sustainability by working at the intersection of materials science, photochemical and electrochemical processes, and polymer science and engineering to capture and remove CO2 from complex and often dilute mixtures. We will use fundamental chemistry principles to develop novel techniques that aid in a fair transition to a net-zero carbon future, providing access to efficient, climate-friendly energy management.