Summary: An international team from Hanyang University in South Korea, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization has developed a new plastic membrane that is four times better than current technologies at separating CO2 from biofuel. The plastic acts as a molecular sponge, allowing only CO2 to pass into it. While natural gas is fairly clean to process and burn, it damages the environment to collect it and it is limited in supply. Thus, advocating for the use of ‘biogas’, made from manure and other types of waste, has become popular. The downfall to this ‘biogas’ is it still contains high levels of CO2, one of the main culprits of global warming. The new plastic membrane is meant to address this problem, and in a much more affordable way. Other uses could possibly be in burning coal, filtering water, and in hydrogen fuel cells.
My Take: I think this is just great stuff; exactly what I like to cover in this blog. While it appears wide-spread adoption of such a plastic membrane is still “a few years away”, it is still a great development on the alternative energy front. With innovation like this going on now, I am confident we can soon be carbon-neutral (even carbon-negative) at any point that we decide to make the commitment. There are still a few hurdles to get to that reality but we are getting close.
Check out the article here
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