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

人为排放的温室气体（GHGs）有可能改变我们的气候，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，捕获温室气体，如二氧化碳，以及其他危险污染物（如二氧化硫，氮氧化物），并将其保持在易于管理的固体形式，可以运输到可以进行控制和安全释放污染物的设施进行储存/处置。这项研究正在发展一种独特的新理论，用于预测这些和其他化学反应系统的能量学。这种预测能力将有助于设计新的化学系统，在这种系统中，被困污染物的吸收和释放在非常温和的条件下发生，只需要很少的额外能量。这种特性使这些新系统比现有的碳捕获技术具有关键的优势，因为在这些旧技术中，释放被捕获的污染物需要大量的能源。这种所需的能源必须通过本身产生大量温室气体的方法（即燃烧化石燃料产生蒸汽，从煤或石油发电等）来产生。事实上，已有研究表明，为了捕获烟气中的大部分（但不是全部）温室气体，传统发电厂必须牺牲9%至25%的能量输出。在这个项目中开发的新的化学污染减排系统将大大减少由捕集剂再生所需的加热过程共同产生的温室气体，使它们成为下个世纪温室气体排放战争的关键武器。

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.