Electrochemical process cuts the energy use of amine-based carbon capture

Carbon capture, whether from power plant flues or directly from air, relies mostly on amine-based sorbents to capture carbon dioxide. Separating the CO₂ and amines requires heating the sorbents—typically by burning fossil fuels.

Researchers have designed an electrochemical process that can trap and release CO₂ in liquid amine sorbents (ACS Cent. Sci. 2023, DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.3c00692). The process uses less energy than conventional methods but gathers the same amount of CO₂ by weight. Using renewable electricity would “make the carbon capture process more sustainable,” says Fang-Yu Kuo, a chemical engineering graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The new devices run at ambient temperatures and pressures, making them smaller and cheaper than the reactors used to heat amines for CO₂ release. Researchers have previously made electrochemical devices based on quinones, or that swing the pH of alkaline solutions.

The researchers combined electrochemical CO₂ capture and release with the strong amine sorbents already in use in the field. The team made an electrochemical cell from a zinc anode, a Prussian White cathode made of potassium, carbon, iron, and nitrogen, and an electrolyte containing ethoxyethylamine.

Charging the cell releases potassium ions into the electrolyte. This triggers CO₂ from air or exhaust passed through the cell to react with the amine, forming carbamic acid. Zinc cations enter the electrolyte during discharge, and the reverse reaction releases CO₂ from the carbamic acid to form carbamate.

Jianbing Jiang, a chemist at the University of Cincinnati, commends the team’s systematic investigation, which “paves the way towards more efficient CO₂ capture and utilization,” he says.