Keep Calm and Capture Carbon…
Tanay N -
…. or go through a list of 127 potential sorbents, analyzing each for their toxicity, state of matter, and reaction potential.
Hello everyone! As stated in my last blog post, for the next two weeks I will be out of town (in Barcelona!) on vacation with my family, so these next few weeks are all about research and reading!
Updates from the Lab
This week, I’ll also be completing my lab trainings! This means that at the end of March, I will finally be able to apply what I’ve learned into professional research setting with the help of my site placement mentor, Dr. Green at the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at ASU.
I’ve also been working on the starting of my research paper, which plans to examine the efficiencies of multiple sorbents, in Overleaf. Overleaf is a website which allows users to employ the coding language LaTeX to create formal research papers. You can see a picture of the code for my title page below.
Additionally, Ms. Holtzman provided me with an inventory list of 127 potential sorbents I can test in Lemon. This is amazing, as now I can do a deep dive to see if these compounds can react with CO2, as well as if the products are safe for at-home use. Below is an image of my workflow for this task. Going through 127 sorbents is a large task, but it is perfect for my situation (going abroad) and it will keep me busy until I can get back to doing physical work in the lab!
Coming Weeks
I’ve also pretty much finalized what my tests will be based on, and some are as follows: warm water w/ Calcium hydroxide, cold water w/ Calcium hydroxide, inward fan w/ Calcium hydroxide & room temperature water, and outward fan w/ Calcium hydroxide & room temperature water. For example, if the warm water has more CO2 captured compared to cold water, and if the inward fan has a higher amount of CO2 captured compared to the outward fan, then I will finally test the warm water with the inward fan placement. I hypothesize that such a combination will reap the highest efficiencies.
Afterwards, I will use the combination of water temperature and fan directionality in regard to the sorbents I’ve selected from the inventory list of 127. I’m enthusiastic to see what novel combinations we can discover!
Next week, I’ll go into what I’ve found from the inventory. Understanding acid-base chemistry is crucial to knowing if the sorbents can be used safely or if the product will precipitate, so I will also share my notes in the next blog post. Once again, thank you to Ms. Holtzman and Dr. Green for their amazing guidance throughout my project. I expect it to be a busy but joyful couple of weeks and I am ready for it!
Thank you so much to all of you who have been reading my blogs and I’ll see you in the next one!
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