The Key to Curbing Carbon?
Chemists in California invented a powder that can remove harmful carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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Could a bright yellow powder be the key to curbing climate change? Probably not, but it might help. Invented by a team of chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, the powder has demonstrated an ability to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.
Zihou Zhou, a graduate student studying chemistry at the university and one of the inventors of the powder, says the powder is made up of crystalline materials with large pores that can suck up carbon dioxide. Climate change is caused by the presence of too much CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity. To address the effects of climate change, like warmer temperatures, melting ice, and more severe weather, it’s crucial to reduce the amount of CO2.
“It’s a monumental problem to take [carbon dioxide] out of the air because it’s mixed with other gases and it’s dilute; harmful, but dilute. And that makes it a supremely harder problem,” Professor Omar Yaghi told CBS News. Yaghi runs the lab at the university where he, Zhou, and others are investigating how chemistry can be used to address climate change.
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Smog, which is a mixture of fog and pollutants, fills the air above Los Angeles, California.
Zhou needed to test whether the powder could really remove carbon dioxide from air. He began by putting the powder into a straw-like filter. Then he pumped in a mixture of gases including oxygen, nitrogen (the main ingredients of air), and CO2. When the gases went through the powder-packed filter, the level of CO2 dropped to zero because it became trapped in the powder. Zhou was able to remove the CO2-packed powder from the filter, add fresh powder, and try again with a new sample of gases.
Zhou repeated the test hundreds of times, using the gas mix he’d created as well as real air. Each time, the powder did its job. Zhou says that once the carbon dioxide has been trapped by the powder, it can be safely stored, leaving clean air behind.
“A beautiful result. The air was completely cleansed of CO2 and [this was done] repeatedly,” Yaghi said.
Yaghi hopes that the powder will be able to be employed on a large scale so that it can be a useful tool in the fight against climate change. But he cautions that the team’s invention cannot be the only solution. To really curb climate change, people need to stop producing greenhouse gases.
