Blood Science Offers Possible Carbon Capture Route

United Technologies is looking at how blood captures CO2 to see if this has potential for larger scale carbon capture / sequestration.  One targeted industry is coal-fired power plants.

"Blood cells in all breathing creatures are constantly capturing carbon dioxide and moving it someplace better--just what coal-fired power plant operators may soon have to do witComposeh all the carbon dioxide produced by burning coal."

" ... trying to develop industrial blood--a synthetic version of the enzyme that blood uses to capture CO2 ... best known chemistry for CO2 management ... "

"Current carbon capture approaches use chemicals ... system has to be huge and the process requires a pile of heat, which means a pile of energy and therefore a pile of cash. The cost of electricity from a coal-fired plant is projected to rise 80% in order to pay for a 90% reduction in CO2."

" ... envisions a simpler, cheaper system involving membranes that sift carbon dioxide out of the flue gas ...  hopes to do is dope the membrane with a substance based on the enzyme that blood uses to capture CO2, called carbonic anhydrase."c--are also working to develop carbon capture devices based on carbonic anhydrase.


Via:  Forbes LINK