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Jason E. Bara, Douglas L. Gin, & Richard D. Noble talk with ScienceWatch.com and answer a few questions about this month's New Hot Papers paper in the field of Engineering.

Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

Individually, ionic liquids and CO2 capture have both been very hot areas of research over the past few years, and we wanted to provide a useful reference to illustrate the progress in the various uses of ionic liquids as solvents for CO2 capture that have been proposed.

Coauthor Douglas L. Gin


Coauthor Richard D. Noble

We think that the paper is highly cited because it provides a very convenient and comprehensive recent overview of the broad work that has been done by us and others using ionic liquids for CO2 capture.

Does it describe a new discovery, methodology, or synthesis of knowledge?

In addition to compiling and organizing all of the data that had been published by our group and others at that time, we provided several new experimental results, which expanded upon previous works. We also included concise background information on related topics and a perspective as to what directions the field might go next.

How did you become involved in this research, and how would you describe the particular challenges, setbacks, and successes that you've encountered along the way?

We became involved in this research because of the timely opportunity it presents. Finding a cost-effective, energy-efficient solution for capturing the billions of tons of annual CO2 emissions from power plants and other industrial sources is one of the most challenging engineering problems of our time.

Ionic liquids provide some very unique opportunities to address these challenges. Achieving economically viable CO2 capture is not only a matter of finding the "right" ionic liquid, or a combination of an ionic liquid and another solvent (e.g. amine), but also a matter of designing and operating cost and energy efficient processes that take full advantage of the unique properties of ionic liquid-based solvents.

Where do you see your research leading in the future?

We certainly have gained a lot of knowledge about ionic liquids in the lab, and as chemical engineers, we need to apply that knowledge to make ionic liquid-based solutions work for CO2 capture at large scales in the field.

Jason E. Bara, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Chemical & Biological Engineering
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

Richard D. Noble
Alfred T. & Betty E. Look Professor
Dept. of Chemical & Biological Engineering
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO, USA

Douglas L. Gin
Professor
Dept. of Chemical & Biological Engineering
and
Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry
University of Colora

KEYWORDS: CO2 SEPARATIONS, IMIDAZOLIUM-BASED ROOM-TEMPERATURE IONIC LIQUIDS, PERFORMANCE DATA, CAPABILITIES, LIMITATIONS, REGULAR SOLUTION THEORY, CARBON-DIOXIDE SOLUBILITY, SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS, GAS SEPARATIONS, NATURAL GAS, HYDROCARBON SOLUBILITIES, MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY, CAPTURE.

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• 2010
• July 2010 - New Hot Papers
• Jason E. Bara, Douglas L. Gin, & Richard D. Noble on Ionic Liquids & CO2 Capture