Organization Name: University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder)
Project Title: Achieving a 10,000 GPU Permeance for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture with Gelled Ionic Liquid-Based Membranes

Alongside Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Electric Power Research Institute, CU-Boulder is developing a membrane made of a gelled ionic liquid to capture CO₂ from the exhaust of coal-fired power plants. The membranes are created by spraying the gelled ionic liquids in thin layers onto porous support structures using a specialized coating technique. The new membrane is highly efficient at pulling CO₂ out of coal-derived flue gas exhaust while restricting the flow of other materials through it. The design involves few chemicals or moving parts and is more mechanically stable than current technologies. The team is now working to further optimize the gelled materials for CO₂ separation and create a membrane layer that is less than 1 micrometer thick.

Project Factsheet (PDF 323KB)

Other Resources
Project Details presented at the 2010 CO2 Capture Technology Meeting in September, 2010

IMPACCT - Projects

• Alliant Techsystems: Supersonic Technology for CO2 Capture
• Codexis: Better Enzymes for Carbon Capture
• Columbia University: Chemically Accelerated Carbon Mineralization
• GE Global Research: CO2 Capture with Liquid-to-Solid Absorbents
• Georgia Tech: Composite Membranes for CO2 Capture
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Metal Organic Framework Research
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Synthetic Catalysts for CO2 Storage
• MIT: CO2 Capture Using Electrical Energy
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory: High-Surface-Area CO2 Sponge
• Research Triangle Institute: CO2 Capture and Regeneration at Low Temperatures
• Sustainable Energy Solutions: Cryogenic Carbon Capture
• Texas A&M University: Stimuli-Responsive Metal Organic Frameworks
• University of Colorado Boulder: Gelled Ionic Liquid-Based Membranes
• University of Kentucky Center for Applied Research: Hybrid Solvent-Membrane CO2 Capture
• University of Notre Dame: Phase-Changing Ionic Liquids