Cheaper method to capture carbon dioxide could shake up industry

Guanidinium sulfate-based clathrate salt can cage the gas cheaply and release it easily

Scientists have created a guanidinium sulfate salt that can capture and store CO2 at ambient pressures and temperatures, with little energy input. The strategy could change how industry captures, transports and stores the gas.

An international team of scientists charged an aqueous Gua2SO4 solution with CO2 and saw a single-crystalline guanidinium sulfate-based clathrate salt form at ambient conditions. Because the solution encased CO2 without forming strong bonds with the carbon dioxide, researchers were able to easily reverse the process to release the gas again.