Berkeley labs new hybrid membrane has eight times more carbon dioxide permeability which will make carbon capture more efficient

A new, highly permeable carbon capture membrane developed by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could lead to more efficient ways of separating carbon dioxide from power plant exhaust, preventing the greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.

The researchers focused on a hybrid membrane that is part polymer and part metal-organic framework, which is a porous three-dimensional crystal with a large internal surface area that can absorb enormous quantities of molecules.

In a first, the scientists engineered the membrane so that carbon dioxide molecules can travel through it via two distinct channels. Molecules can travel through the polymer component of the membrane, like they do in conventional gas-separation membranes. Or molecules can flow through “carbon dioxide highways” created by adjacent metal-organic frameworks.

Initial tests show this two-route approach makes the hybrid membrane eight times more carbon dioxide permeable than membranes composed only of the polymer.

The hybrid membrane has metal-organic frameworks which account for 50 percent of its weight, which is about 20 percent more than other hybrid membranes. Previously, the mechanical stability of a hybrid membrane limited the amount of metal-organic frameworks that could be packed in it.

Energy and Environmental Science – Enhanced permeation arising from dual transport pathways in hybrid polymer–MOF membranes


SOURCE – Berkeley National Lab