New material design tops carbon-capture from wet flue gases

Chemical engineers at EPFL have designed a material that can capture carbon dioxide from wet flue gasses better than current commercial materials. Generally speaking, "flue gas" refers to any gas coming out of a pipe, exhaust, chimney etc. as a product of combustion in a fireplace, oven, furnace, boiler, or steam generator. But the term is more commonly used to describe the exhaust vapors exiting the flues of factories and powerplants. Iconic though they may be, these flue gases contain significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is a major greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. One way to ameliorate the polluting impact of flue gases is to take the CO₂ out of them and store it in geological formations or recycle it; there is, in fact, an enormous amount of research trying to find novel materials that can capture CO₂ from these flue gasses. A "sponge" that is not affected by water Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are among the most promising of these materials, but most of these materials require drying the "wet" flue gas first, which is technically feasible but also very expensive - and thus less likely to be implemented commercially.