Chemists at Oregon State University developed a metal-organic framework called BVR-X that keeps capturing carbon dioxide even when flue gas is humid. Water normally blocks the adsorption sites on MOFs, but BVR-X uses pore compartmentalization to move water away from the CO2 capture sites. In lab tests, it captured CO2 from a highly humid stream with only 4 percent CO2, a mix similar to natural gas power plant exhaust. The economic upside is that industrial facilities may not need to dry flue gas before carbon capture, a step that adds major cost. The material also survived dozens of capture and release cycles. The research was published in Angewandte Chemie, and a patent application has been filed with Saudi Aramco as a funder and co-applicant. Point-source carbon capture remains a near-term way to cut industrial emissions, and water-tolerant materials like BVR-X address one of the main practical barriers. The next step is testing under real flue gas conditions with impurities and longer operating periods.
