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| Science & Technology |
| Smart particle could hold climate change key |
| 2024-08-25 |
| [BBC] A climate tech company has won an £8m investment to mass produce tiny particles that can be "programmed" to soak up and store greenhouse gases. Promethean Particles, in Nottingham, is working with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) - tiny nanoparticles that have extremely large internal surface areas. One teaspoon of the super adsorbent particles contains the equivalent area of two tennis courts. The company is hoping to use the new financing, which has been led by Mercia Ventures and Aramco Ventures, to build a bigger manufacturing facility and expand its team. It is also aiming to drive down the price of MOFs from tens of thousands of pounds to just £25 per kilo. The key to reducing the price and scaling up production would be to make the nanoparticles from cheap, widely available metals such as zinc and magnesium. James Stephenson, chief executive officer (CEO) of Promethean, said: "MOFs are an incredible class of materials that have shown all kinds of potential in lots of applications." Their internal surfaces can be lab-engineered to become "sticky" for different gases. Out in the real world, the nanoparticles can act as both mini-sponges and mini-sieves, able to both separate and store large volumes of different gases. These properties could be used to reduce the climate impact of producing cement, metals and energy, which continue to emit huge quantities of greenhouse gases. MOF particles from Promethean are already being used in a prototype carbon capture unit at Drax power station in Yorkshire. ANALYSIS |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #8 If you could store carbon inexpensively (a big if that will require about 2 or 3 orders of magnitude increase in efficiency), it would be a great thing. This is because if the world then gets too cold, the storage could be reversed. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2024-08-25 22:15 |
| #7 Not necessarily agree with the myths. But definitely give them lip service, and use all the popular phrases possible in your grant proposals and subsequent publications in order to increase the odds of getting money and then getting published. But this is not new – my father played that game very successfully in his oncology research starting in the 1960s. Before that, he was the one in charge of handing out the money, and so could apply more objective scientific standards. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2024-08-25 16:59 |
| #6 ^If I want my PHD, I have to agree with the myths! |
| Posted by: Titus Ebbegum3551 2024-08-25 16:18 |
| #5 /\ No valid counterthesis appears to have surfaced. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2024-08-25 15:09 |
| #4 Global Warming is a myth propagated by rich people to give them an excuse for poor people elimination. The power to regulate is the power to control!!!!!! |
| Posted by: Old Salty 2024-08-25 14:07 |
| #3 If you're bothered by CO2, grow corrals. |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2024-08-25 12:45 |
| #2 The 'key to climate change', assuming that climate change is both rapid and caused my man, and that gas capture would be an effective means of reducing it to whatever level, in whatever time period, at whatever cost. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2024-08-25 12:13 |
| #1 NOAA agrees to restore ‘scientific integrity’ in its influential $1 billion climate disaster tally |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2024-08-25 09:05 |