Researchers have invented a new, low-cost method for capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and industrial facilities known as pressure-induced carbon capture (PICC).
According to the university, the process uses water and pressure to pull carbon dioxide out of exhaust gases before it reaches the atmosphere, offering a cleaner and less expensive alternative to traditional chemical methods.
The process was created by Mark Holtzapple, professor of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University, and Jonathan Feinstein of ExcelThermic Enterprises. Holtzapple and Feinstein have filed patents to license the technology across power plants, hydrogen production sites, steel blast furnaces, cement kilns, and a wide range of industrial emitters.
“Our invention is a cost-effective way to address one of the greatest challenges facing humanity,” Holtzapple said. “We can capture carbon dioxide from flue gas using only water and pressure, which makes the process simple, clean and less expensive than competing technologies.”
The process cools and compresses flue gas before sending it into an absorption column, where the gas rises and contacts cold, downward-flowing water that absorbs nearly all the carbon dioxide. The cleaned gas is released at the top, while the CO2-rich water at the bottom flows through a series of lower-pressure vessels that let the carbon dioxide bubble out. The released CO2 is then compressed and prepared for permanent storage in underground formations such as saline aquifers.
“Without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, PICC allows us to use abundant fossil fuels on which our civilization is built. Furthermore, by coupling PICC to biomass combustion, we can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere cost effectively,” Holtzapple said.