Biowaste derived carbon for nitrogen/carbon dioxide separation

The planet is currently facing a severe problem with greenhouse gas emissions with the 2018 IPCC report setting a net zero target by 2040 if we are to avoid the worst effect of climate change. To achieve this effective carbon storage is necessary. This requires concentrated CO2 sources to avoid storing large quantities of N2 with the CO2. Therefore it is important to be able to selectively adsorb CO2 over N2. Porous carbons represent an ideal choice for gas separation due to their high surface area and tunable pore size, but they can also be produced via hydrothermal carbonization in a carbon negative way further increasing their potential to limit CO2 emmisions. Here we propose to use SANS and total neutron scattering at NIMROD to elucidate the gas storage mechanism for N2 and CO2 in a soft templated carbon with and with activation.