Catalyst-TiO(OH)<sub>2</sub> could drastically reduce the energy consumption of CO<sub>2</sub> capture.

Lai, Qinghua; Toan, Sam; Assiri, Mohammed A; Cheng, Huaigang; Russell, Armistead G; Adidharma, Hertanto; Radosz, Maciej; Fan, Maohong · Nat Commun · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Implementing Paris Climate Accord is inhibited by the high energy consumption of the state-of-the-art CO<sub>2</sub> capture technologies due to the notoriously slow kinetics in CO<sub>2</sub> desorption step of CO<sub>2</sub> capture. To address the challenge, here we report that nanostructured TiO(OH)<sub>2</sub> as a catalyst is capable of drastically increasing the rates of CO<sub>2</sub> desorption from spent monoethanolamine (MEA) by over 4500%. This discovery makes CO<sub>2</sub> capture successful at much lower temperatures, which not only dramatically reduces energy consumption but also amine losses and prevents emission of carcinogenic amine-decomposition byproducts. The catalytic effect of TiO(OH)<sub>2</sub> is observed with Raman characterization. The stabilities of the catalyst and MEA are confirmed with 50 cyclic CO<sub>2</sub> sorption and sorption. A possible mechanism is proposed for the TiO(OH)<sub>2</sub>-catalyzed CO<sub>2</sub> capture. TiO(OH)<sub>2</sub> could be a key to the future success of Paris Climat e Accord.