Materials challenges in carbon-mitigation technologies

Abstract

Given the increasing size of CO 2-generating industries and the mounting awareness of their environmental impact, carbon-management technologies are expected to play an important role in curtailing environmental emissions in coming years. A major challenge in carbon management is the development of cost-effective, technologically compatible, and efficient CO 2 capture and storage technologies. The development of energy-efficient solvent, solid-sorbent, and membrane materials to capture CO 2 from industrial exhaust streams can take improvements in process efficiency one step further. Also, the permanent storage of CO 2 in geologic formations is critical to the success of carbon-management technologies and requires better understanding of interactions of CO 2 with underground materials. These and other materials challenges must be solved to make carbon capture and storage an economically viable and reliable technology to be adopted by the power and product manufacturing industries. © 2012 Materials Research Society.