An innovative membrane that captures carbon dioxide from the air using humidity differences has been developed. This energy-efficient method could help meet climate goals by offering a sustainable carbon dioxide source for various applications. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com

A new membrane technology developed by Newcastle University leverages humidity to efficiently capture carbon dioxide, offering a promising solution for sustainable direct air capture essential for achieving climate targets.

Direct air capture was identified as one of the ‘Seven chemical separations to change the world’. This is because although carbon dioxide is the main contributor to climate change (we release ~40 billion tons into the atmosphere every year), separating carbon dioxide from air is very challenging due to its dilute concentration (~0.04%).

Challenges in Carbon Dioxide Separation

Prof Ian Metcalfe, Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies in the School of Engineering, Newcastle University, UK, and lead investigator states, “Dilute separation processes are the most challenging separations to perform for two key reasons. First, due to the low concentration, the kinetics (speed) of chemical reactions targeting the removal of the dilute component are very slow. Second, concentrating the dilute component requires a lot of energy.”

These are the two challenges that the Newcastle researchers (with colleagues at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, SciTechDaily