Cheers! CSIRO hops to a CO2 solution

It won’t tackle global carbon emissions yet, but the CSIRO has found a way to pull carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere and put it into beer. The national science agency says there have been shortages in industrial supplies of the gas over the past decade, impacting on fizzy beverage supply and food production.New technology called Airthena captures CO2 directly from the air using tiny sponges known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and can be scaled up for commercial production. It was developed in partnership with Monash University, Energy Infrastructure and Resources and H2H Energy. CSIRO project lead Aaron Thornton said the solution had broad applications across a wide range of industries. “As it requires just air and electricity to work, Airthena offers a cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally-friendly option to recycle CO2 for use on-site, on-demand,” Dr Thornton said. “It also provides a more reliable source of CO2 for use in small-scale applications ranging from beverage carbonation to controlling pH in swimming pools, and industrial cleaning.” A common method companies currently use to generate CO2 onsite relies on burning natural gas, which is subject to market price and supply fluctuations. CO2 can also be bought from a supplier, which can involve expensive long-distance transportation and be prone to shortages. Airthena only needs about two kilowatt-hours of electricity per kilogram of CO2, equal to around 20 cents per kilogram at minimum solar energy prices of $0.1 per kilowatt-hour at its current scale. Airthena is capable of capturing two tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere a year, making it suitable for small-scale applications right now, but Dr Thornton says it is scalable. “We are now exploring options for taking Airthena to market, which include reducing the cost of the unit for small scale applications and having it tested to ensure it meets food quality standards, or working with the food production industry to scale up the technology for larger applications,” Dr Thornton said. Airthena could also be valuable for the chemicals industry which use CO2 as a feedstock for making other compounds and materials such as methanol and methane. The collaboration and development of Airthena was supported by $725,000 from the Science and Industry Endowment Fund.

Cheers! CSIRO hops to a CO2 solution

Industry Queensland

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