Organization Name: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Project Title: High Performance CO₂ Scrubbing Based on Hollow Fiber-Supported Designer Ionic Liquid Sponges

The team from ORNL and Georgia Tech is developing a new technology that will act like a sponge, integrating a new, alcohol-based ionic liquid into hollow fibers (magnified image, right) to capture CO₂ from the exhaust produced by coal-fired power plants. Ionic liquids, or salts that exist in liquid form, are promising materials for carbon capture and storage, but their tendency to thicken when combined with CO₂ limits their efficiency and poses a challenge for their development as a cost-effective alternative to current-generation solutions. Adding alcohol to the mix limits this tendency to thicken in the presence of CO₂ but can also make the liquid more likely to evaporate, which would add significantly to the cost of CO₂ capture. To solve this problem, ORNL is developing new classes of ionic liquids with high capacity for absorbing CO₂. ORNL’s sponge would reduce the cost associated with the energy that would need to be diverted from power plants to capture CO₂ and release it for storage.

Project Factsheet (PDF 285KB)

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