Currently, the few coal plants with commercial carbon dioxide capture capability all use processes based on chemical absorption with monoethanolamine (MEA), a general-purpose solvent developed by chemists some 75 years ago.

Unfortunately, it is non-selective, corrosive, requires the use of large equipment, and effective only under low to moderate partial pressures of carbon dioxide.

Maiti's new system overcomes many of these shortcomings. Over the past few years, several ionic liquids have been tested to be efficient solvents for carbon dioxide.

'By creating a computational tool that can decipher ahead of time which ionic liquids work best to separate carbon dioxide, it can be a much more efficient process when field tests are conducted.'

Maiti's research featured as the cover story in a recent issue of ChemSusChem, a new journal focused on chemistry and sustainability.