Textile filter could advance carbon capture tech

The team at North Carolina State University found that they could filter carbon dioxide from air and gas mixtures at ‘promising rates’ using the filter, which combines cotton fabric and an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase — one of nature’s tools for speeding chemical reactions.

Whilst the filter would need to be scaled up in size significantly for reducing emissions from biomass, coal or natural gas power plants, researchers believe their design would make that step easier compared with other proposed solutions.

“With this technology, we want to stop carbon dioxide emissions at the source, and power plants are the main source of carbon dioxide emissions right now,” said the study’s lead author Jialong Shen, postdoctoral research scholar at NC State.

The centrepiece of the team’s design for a proposed textile-based chemical filter is the naturally occurring carbonic anhydrase, which can speed up a reaction in which carbon dioxide and water will turn into bicarbonate. The enzyme plays an important role in the human body, transporting carbon dioxide so it can be exhaled.