Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a New England Council member, are working on a device which would cheaply remove carbon dioxide, a dangerous greenhouse gas, from smokestacks.
Current smokestack scrubbers are extremely costly and use about 30% of the plant’s power output. The MIT project hopes to improve scrubbers by lowering their energy requirements. The researchers hope to do this by using a device similar to a rechargeable battery. This technique would be less expensive and easier to add to existing smokestacks than current systems. The researchers are also proposing lowering costs by treating the carbon dioxide captured by the scrubbers as a product and selling it to drilling companies.
Tibor Toth, managing director of investments at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center said of the MIT project, “It’s certainly addressing an area where we haven’t seen a lot of promising new technologies. This project will allow them to really explore commercial applications and be that catalyst to attract future funding.” The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center contributed to the $80,000 of funding the project has received to build a small-scale commercial prototype.
The New England Council congratulates MIT on its promising research and looks forward to its future accomplishments.
Read more in the Boston Globe.
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