UC Berkeley

In recent years, the power sector has shown a growing reliance on natural gas, a cleaner-burning fuel than coal that emits approximately half as much CO₂ per kWh of energy produced. This rapid growth in the consumption of natural gas has led to increased CO₂ emissions from gas-fired power plants. To limit the contribution of fossil fuel combustion to atmospheric CO₂ levels, carbon capture and sequestration has been proposed as a potential emission mitigation strategy. However, despite extensive exploration of solid adsorbents for CO₂ capture, few studies have examined the performance of adsorbents in post-combustion capture processes specific to natural gas flue emissions. In this perspective, we emphasize the importance of considering gas-fired power plants alongside coal-fired plants in future analyses of carbon capture materials. We address specific challenges and opportunities related to adsorptive carbon capture from the emissions of gas-fired plants and discuss several promising candidate materials. Finally, we suggest experiments to determine the viability of new CO₂ capture materials for this separation. This broadening in the scope of current carbon capture research is urgently needed to accelerate the deployment of transformational carbon capture technologies.