CO2 Capture and Sequestration Using Nanomaterials

Intense human activity over the last decades resulted in growing environmental concerns, including alarming carbon dioxide (CO2) emission levels. CO2 is a major anthropogenic greenhouse gas which principally results from excessive combustion of fossil fuels. To reach the targets imposed by governments worldwide in the Paris Agreement (2015), but especially to fight climate change, we propose to focus on different aspects of CO2 capture and management, from the perspectives of materials science. The main purpose of this research is to identify materials and processes (physisorption/chemisorption mechanisms) to accomplish sustainable CO2 capture and sequestration. This means that we are not going to use energy for our processes, relying only on the materials chemistry. The first idea is to employ our prototype for indoor air quality. Hence, a vessel has been designed in order to accurately reproduce a closed environment. Usually, in closed environments, CO2 has the ability to negatively influence human health and productivity. Thus, our plan is to reduce the concentration of CO2 in closed environments, to prevent decrease in people cognitive functions. Computational techniques are used to determine which material has the best affinity for CO2. Then, the results effectiveness is evaluated by means of experimental activities. The results indicate that the proposed sorbents can capture several thousands ppm of CO2 in 24 hours under stationary diffusion conditions.