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Capturing Carbon Dioxide in Molecular Sponges |
There is much discussion today about Carbon Capture and Storage. Conventional carbon capture relies on chemically bonding CO2 to a reactive molecule in the liquid state, a process called amine scrubbing. An alternate approach is one to use a solid like a sponge to trap CO2. After a decade, we have developed a solid that has actually been moved up the technology ladder, with different academic and industrial partners, to actually be capturing CO2 from a cement plant in Vancouver. This talk will discuss some of the basic science and also the hurdles to translate from milligrams to industrial demonstration. Speaker: Dr. George Shimizu, Department of Chemistry, University of Calgary George has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Calgary since 1998. He researches new nanoporous solids known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for several applications including carbon capture, water purification and lithium extraction. George's research has spawned numerous patents and two startup companies. He has received the Strem (2008) and Rio Tinto (2019) Awards for Inorganic Chemistry from the Chemical Institute of Canada and the Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Foundation Award for Energy and Environment Innovation (2021). He and wife Lisa have three boys including identical twins and two huskies. |