New Zealand scientists develop system to capture carbon emissions

[Candlelight]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/2946227/Scientists-real-eureka-moment

Kiwi scientists have made a breakthrough in which lime would be used to capture carbon emissions from coal-fired power stations.
The process, developed by Industrial Research, uses limestone, a common material.
The commercial benefits of the new process are potentially huge, with countries such as India and China rapidly building new coal-fired power plants.
"It was a real eureka moment. It was the last piece of the jigsaw to make it a practical system," Industrial Research scientist Robert Holt said. "[It is] very well-known chemistry. It's been done for thousands of years."
When limestone is heated to 900 degrees celsius, it loses its carbon dioxide and becomes lime. When lime cools it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air. Until now lime has not been used to capture carbon emissions on a commercial scale, because the process makes it break down too quickly.
However, the Industrial Research team of chemists and chemical engineers has worked out a way to "reactivate" the lime, meaning it can be used up to 100 times before it degrades.
Exposing the lime to steam reopened its pore structures and enabled CO2 to be rapidly absorbed again, Mr Holt said.
"What it does is it makes the lime effective again, but the big breakthrough was discovering a way of thermally treating the lime, after it was hydrated, so we could maintain its structural integrity. It's almost like curing it."
Up to to 85 per cent of carbon emissions could be soaked up by the lime-based process.

Kiiiiiiwwwiiiiiii!!!

 

[Plecostomus]

Nice. A bit energy intensive as of yet but it shows promise.

 

[john titor]

I guess it will make the air more breathable, but global warming is a profit making fiction.

 

[Plecostomus]

I guess it will make the air more breathable, but global warming is a profit making fiction.

Disagree.

 

[miraclefan]

I guess it will make the air more breathable, but global warming is a profit making fiction.

Disagree.

Disagree.

 

[Plecostomus]

I guess it will make the air more breathable, but global warming is a profit making fiction.

Disagree.

Disagree.

Still disagree.

 

[Gepard]

So we all agree to disagree? Because I disagree and think we should all agree.

 

[Plecostomus]

So we all agree to disagree? Because I disagree and think we should all agree.

I agree.

 

[Brent]

Watch as the oil company's squander this discovery

 

[Lindley]

Funny how this news comes out just as Stargate Universe does an episode devoted to finding enough lime to scrub their CO2.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Until coal-fired power plants are replaced by greener alternatives, I think this particular approach to the idea might be more useful.

I think I remember Jeremy Clarkson trying a similar improvised limestone-based device for a car on Top Gear, attached to the car's exhaust to capture its CO2 emissions, which worked very well indeed, but was dismissed for being "too expensive" to implement on a commercial scale.

 

[John Picard]

Watch as the oil company's squander this discovery

What do the oil companies have to do with coal related technology? I love the "evil oil company" conspiracy theory. The best one, to date, is the mythical 100mpg carburetor.

Until coal-fired power plants are replaced by greener alternatives, I think this particular approach to the idea might be more useful.

This "Green" technology is such BS. First of all, there are coal plants in the US coming online that pump the solid particulates back into the ground. Prepare to see more and more of that in the future. Second, T. Boone(doggle) Pickens was all about his "clean energy" with wind farms and is now trying to unload his interest in them. Why? There's NO MONEY to be made. Imagine that. And here's he's been telling (conning) people that he wasn't in it for the money and wanted to build a "clean future" for generations to come.

To top it off, the environmentalist nutjobs scream that we need clean power, yet they recently blocked the building of a large solar farm in Arizona and are also blocking the expansion or building of wind farms because of the hazard to avian wildlife. Then, people up in Martha's Vineyard (Ted Kennedy was one) prevented offshore wind turbines due to their being unaesthetic.

Do you have any idea how unclean solar panels are? Not solar energy, but the actual panels. They're made up of PCBs and many other toxic substances. Solar power is more of a negative net gain when it comes to being "green".