Polymers carbon sequestration

Carbon dioxide is considered to be an interesting alternative to most traditional solvents [17, 18] because of its practical physical and chemical properties it is a solvent for monomers and a non-solvent for polymers, which allows for easy separation. To a somewhat lesser extent, it can also be a sustainable source of carbon [19]. The use of CO2 as a reactant is considered to contribute to the solution of the depletion of fossil fuels and the sequestration of the greenhouse gas CO2. One example in this area is the copolymerization of carbon dioxide with oxiranes to aliphatic polycarbonates [19-22]. 

Hwang CC, Jin Z, Lu W, Sun Z, Alemany LB, Lomeda JR, Tour JM (2011) In situ synthesis of polymer-modified mesoporous carbon CMK-3 composites for CO2 sequestration. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 3 4782-4786... 

However, if we use annually renewable crops or biomass as the feedstocks for manufacturing our carbon based polymers, chemicals, and fuels, the rate at which CO2 is fixed equals the rate at which it is consumed and liberated - this is sustainable and the use of annually renewable crops/biomass would allows us to manage carbon in a sustainable manner. Furthermore, if we manage our biomass resources effectively by making sure that we plant more biomass (trees, crops) than we utilize, we can begin to start reversing the CO2 rate equation and move towards a net balance between CO2 fixation/sequestration and release due to consumption. Thus, using annually renewable carbon feedstocks allows for ... 

Some of the available membrane separation processes can already be applied on an industrial scale. Hence, inorganic ceramic membranes (zeolites and their derivatives, e.g. silico aluminophosphates), organic polymer membranes and facilitated transport membranes, which rely on a carrier molecule with high CO2 affinity to achieve selective CO2 transport (such as metallic ions or liquid amines), have been used in separating CO2 from flue gas in post-combustion. As single-stage separation with these membranes is still difficult, new membrane materials are being developed [1]. Typically, the initial separation of carbon dioxide accounfs for 60-80% of the total cost of CO2 sequestration [24,25]. 

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