Carbon Capture and Storage

A team of scientists from the College of Chemistry and Berkeley Lab find a new route in bacteria to decarbonize industry. The discovery could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing of fuels, drugs, and chemicals. Specifically, the team is looking at a metabolic process in bacteria that could be a sustainable source of carbon-based...

Cars powered by fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide (CO2), the most prevalent greenhouse gas. A team of scientists led by Berkeley Lab has developed a new technique that improves the conversion of CO2 emissions into useful chemicals and liquid fuels. (Credit: Adobe stock)

Cars powered by fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide (CO2), the most prevalent...

While rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere cause great concern worldwide, most of us pay little attention to risks posed by CO2 changes indoors. Roya Maboudian, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, studies the properties of nano-materials, including how their surfaces affect their performance. As a 2019-2020 Bakar Fellow, she is developing small, inexpensive and sensitive CO2 sensors. She described her research and its potential.

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.