Turn carbon in the atmosphere into useful materials

Plants are capable of absorbing CO2 from the air. However, this benefit is only temporary. The reason is that the rest of the plants release carbon into the atmosphere, mainly through decomposition.

1.8g of SiC requires about 177 kW / h of energy. Researchers have proposed a new way of turning plants into a valuable industrial material called silicon carbide (SiC). In a new study, scientists at the Salk Institute (USA) have converted tobacco and corn husks into SiC. These findings are critical to help researchers evaluate and quantify carbon uptake strategies. “The study gives a very careful calculation of how this valuable substance is made and how many carbon atoms are removed from the atmosphere,” said study co-author Professor Joseph Noel of the Salk Institute. SiC is also known as carborundum. This is a super hard material used in ceramics, sandpaper, semiconductors, and LEDs. Salk’s team used a previously reported method to convert plant materials into SiC in three stages. First, the researchers planted tobacco plants from seeds, which were selected for the short growing season. They then pulverized the harvested plants and treated it with a number of chemicals, including silicon-containing compounds. In the final stage, the starch plants are turned into rocks to give SiC. This process involves heating the material to 1,600 degrees Celsius. “We have demonstrated that carbon can be isolated from agricultural residues such as corn husks,” said study author Suzanne Thomas. Thereby, a green material is created ”. Through elemental analysis of plant meal, the authors measured a 50,000-fold increase in carbon sequestration from seed to laboratory plants. This is a demonstration of the effectiveness of plants in reducing atmospheric carbon. When heated to high temperatures to freeze, the plant material loses some of its carbon as a variety of decomposition products. The researchers calculated that the generation of 1.8 g of SiC requires about 177 kW / h of energy. Most of the energy (70%) is used at the freezing step. The current SiC manufacturing process has comparable energy costs, the authors note. Therefore, the team thinks that new technologies produced by renewable energy companies could reduce energy costs. In the future, the team expressed hope to explore this process in a variety of plants, especially species such as horsetail or bamboo. These are species that contain large amounts of natural silicon.