Clarkson University research, which shows how surplus milk may be used to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil‐fuel based power plant emissions, is featured on the front cover of the November issue of Advanced Sustainable Systems. Two major sources of greenhouse gasses are CO2 emissions from fossil-based power plants and methane emissions from cattle. There is a strong scientific consensus that emissions like these are causing human-induced climate change. The article, “CO2 Capture: Dry and Wet CO2 Capture from Milk‐Derived Microporous Carbons with Tuned Hydrophobicity,” explains that it is possible to greatly reduce power plant CO2 emissions by using surplus or waste milk from cows to create activated carbons, which will adsorb or scrub the CO2 from the output.
This is the first report of state-of-the-art performance for an activated carbon derived from a natural compound. The process for making the sorbents is similar to what is done to roast coffee, but with a secondary agent that etches nanoscale holes onto the material. The article says that cows on average release from 150 to 260 pounds of methane per year and that employing their milk to capture CO2 would also help to offset this emission.
The researchers say that these milk-derived carbon sorbents could also be used in other applications as well, like indoor air purification or water treatment, and that commercialization of the process may be in the future.
Source: Phys.org
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