An innovative method for stripping greenhouse gases such as
carbon dioxide from industrial emissions is potentially cheaper and more
efficient than current methods, according to a United States patent based on
research by Dr. Jason E. Bara, assistant professor of chemical and biological
engineering at The University of Alabama.
Nearly all commercially-available efforts at scrubbing
greenhouse gasses, GHG’s, from emissions use a liquid solution of water and
amine, derived from ammonia, that contacts the stream, removing carbon dioxide,
CO2, or other unwanted gases. The system patented by Bara would replace much of
the water in the aqueous amine solutions with a promising class of molecules
known as imidazoles, organic solvents with a low vapor pressure, or boiling
point.