The development of new solid sorbents for CO2, SO2 and other gaseous pollutants

人为温室气体(GHGs)威胁着我们的气候变化，其规模将在下个世纪给人类带来巨大的痛苦。温室气体是通过燃烧煤、石油和汽油等化石燃料产生的，主要是在发电厂和汽车中。这项研究将开发新的化学系统，以捕获二氧化碳等温室气体以及其他危险污染物(即二氧化硫、氮氧化物)，并将其保持在易于管理的固体形式，可以运输到能够进行受控和安全释放污染物的设施，以便进行储存/处置。这项研究正在开发一种独特的新理论，用于预测这些和其他化学反应体系的能量学。这种预测能力将有助于设计新的化学系统，在这种系统中，被捕获的污染物的吸收和释放发生在非常温和的条件下，需要非常少的额外能量。这一特性使这些新系统相对于现有的碳捕获技术具有关键优势，因为在这些较旧的技术中，释放捕获的污染物需要大量能源。这种所需的能源必须通过本身会产生大量温室气体的方法来产生(即燃烧化石燃料来制造蒸汽，从煤或石油中发电等)。事实上，已有研究表明，传统发电厂必须牺牲9%至25%的能源输出，才能捕获其烟气中的大部分(但不是全部)温室气体。该计划中开发的新的化学污染缓解系统将大幅减少捕捉剂再生所需的加热过程共同产生的温室气体，使其成为下个世纪遏制温室气体排放的关键武器。

Man-made Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) threaten to change our climate on a scale that will cause tremendous human suffering over the next century. GHGs are created through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gasoline, primarily in electrical power plants and automobiles. This research will develop new chemical systems that capture GHGs such as CO2, as well as other dangerous pollutants (i.e.SO2, NOx) and keep them in an easily managed solid form that can be transported to facilities where controlled and safe release of the pollutant can be carried out for storage/disposal. The research is developing a unique new theory for the prediction of the energetics of these and other chemical reaction systems. This predictive ability will facilitate the design of new chemical systems in which the absorption and release of trapped pollutants happens under very mild conditions, needing very little added energy. This attribute gives these new systems a critical advantage over existing carbon capture technologies, since large amounts of energy are needed for the release of trapped pollutants in these older technologies. This required energy must be generated by methods that themselves produce large amounts of GHGs (i.e. burning fossil fuels to make steam, creating electricity from coal or oil, etc). In fact, it has been shown that a conventional electrical power plant has to sacrifice between 9 and 25% of its energy output in order to capture most (but not all) of the GHGs in its flue gas. The new chemical pollution abatement systems that are developed in this program will allow a drastic reduction in those GHGs co-generated by the heating processes needed for regeneration of the trapping agent, making them a key weapon in the war on GHG emissions over the next century.