Abstract
Methylglyoxal-bis(iminoguanidine) (MGBIG) has been recently identified as a promising sorbent for direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide via crystallization of guanidinium carbonate salts. In this study, the effects of aqueous amino acids and oligopeptides, such as glycine, sarcosine, serine, arginine, taurine, lysine, and glycylglycine, on the efficacy of DAC by crystallization of MGBIG carbonate have been investigated. While most of the amino acids studied were found to precipitate with MGBIG, thereby rendering the sorbent unavailable for DAC, sarcosine, the only amino acid in the series with a secondary amine group, remained soluble in the presence of MGBIG, leading to enhanced DAC compared to MGBIG alone. Specifically, for the same amount of MGBIG (5 mmol), the addition of a small amount of sarcosine to the aqueous solvent–as little as 0.5 mmol–led to extraction of six times as much CO2 from the air (4.15 mmol vs. 0.7 mmol). Thus, aqueous MGBIG and sarcosine work in synergy, offering the prospect for an effective DAC process.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division. The manuscript was produced by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The publisher acknowledges the U.S. Government license to provide public access under the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
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R.C. is an inventor on a patent on DAC involving aqueous amino acid solvents and crystalline guanidines, and seeks to commercialize a technology based on the approach presented in this manuscript.
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Stamberga, D., Thiele, N.A. & Custelcean, R. Synergistic direct air capture of CO2 with aqueous guanidine/amino acid solvents. MRS Advances 7, 399–403 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43580-022-00260-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/s43580-022-00260-z