Carbon Capture and Storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) (or carbon capture and sequestration or carbon control and sequestration) is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide (CO2) from large point sources, such as fossil fuel power plants, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere, normally an underground geological formation. The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere (from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries). Source: Wikipedia

New technique to capture CO2 could reduce power plant greenhouse gases

July 23, 2020
By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley media relations

Use of MOFs to capture CO2

A big advance in carbon capture technology could provide an efficient and inexpensive way for natural gas power plants to remove carbon dioxide from their flue emissions, a necessary step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming and climate change. Developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and ExxonMobil, the new technique uses a highly porous material called a metal-organic framework, or MOF, modified with nitrogen-containing amine molecules to capture the CO2 and low temperature steam to flush out the CO2 for other uses or to sequester it underground.

Fossil Fuels are Dead, Long Live Fossil Fuels

January 7, 2020
Catherine Wolfram | Energy Institute at HAAS

fossil fuel

Electricity generation is projected to play a central role in global decarbonization efforts. On the one hand, electricity generation is supposed to scale up rapidly, as we use electricity to replace fossil fuels in everything from powering vehicles to heating buildings and cooking food. At the same time, decarbonization necessitates a radical transformation in the way we produce electricity, since worldwide, over 60% of electricity is currently produced using fossil fuel technologies.

Experts predict the big chemistry advances of 2020

December 13, 2019
Lauren K. Wolf | C&EN.org

2020 trends in chemistry

Editors from ACS Central Science and Nature Chemistry have weighed in on new and major chemical research trends in a webinar from C&EN. Experts Chris Chang, a senior editor with ACS Central Science and chemistry professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stu Cantrill, the chief editor of Nature Chemistry are interviewed. Chang picked advances in protein degraders for his big trend of 2019. Cantrill chose advances in the chemical recycling of plastics for his trend of the year.

On Mars or Earth, biohybrid can turn CO2 into new products

March 31, 2020
By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley media relations

CO2 capture technology

If humans ever hope to colonize Mars, the settlers will need to manufacture on-planet a huge range of organic compounds, from fuels to drugs, that are too expensive to ship from Earth. University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) chemists have a plan for that.

An unexpected discovery at the air-water interface

December 4, 2023
By Rachel Berkowitz | Berkeley Lab
Research led by Richard Saykally reveals a surprising chemical pathway for a CO2 reaction important in many geological and biological processes.

New material design tops carbon-capture from wet flue gases

December 11, 2019
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

smokestacks

image: courtesy Jeffrey Reimer

In new research reported in Nature, an international team of chemical engineers have designed a material that can capture carbon dioxide from wet flue gasses better than current commercial materials.

“Flue gas” refers to any gas coming out of type of pipe, exhaust, or...

Berkeley’s ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship combats climate change

May 16, 2024
Ivan Natividad, Elizabeth Costello | Berkeley News
UC Berkeley faculty are fast-tracking the development of new and creative climate solutions.

Institute brings together scientists to design pollution-adsorbing materials

December 12, 2024
By Sarah C.P. Williams
The Baker Hughes Institute for Decarbonization Materials has launched to support Berkeley researchers working to pull chemicals from industrial emission streams and the atmosphere.

A simple, cheap material for carbon capture, perhaps from tailpipes

August 10, 2022
By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley media relations

Illustration of a new method for removing CO2.

Carbon dioxide (depicted in red and white at left) is the main greenhouse gas warming Earth and is emitted in large quantities in the flue gas from industrial and power plants. A new method for removing CO2 from these flue gases involves piping the emissions through a porous material based on the chemical melamine (center). DETA, a chemical bound inside the porous melamine...

Breakthrough in capturing ‘hot’ CO2 from industrial exhaust

November 14, 2024
By Robert Sanders | Berkeley News
A metal-organic framework, or MOF, is capable of capturing CO2 at extreme temperatures.