Carbon capture

Author: Inga Martens-Walker

This resource was developed as a result of 
participation in CSIRO’s teacher professional learning 
program, Teacher Researcher in Partnership Program.

© Carbon capture (created by Inga Martens-Walker, 
teacher at Ferny Grove SHS) (2019). Copyright owned 
by Queensland Department of Education. Except as 
otherwise noted, this work is licenced under the 
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International 
Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

CSIRO Australia’s National Science Agency

Carbon capture

Growing concerns regarding climate change have attracted widespread 
efforts to develop efficient and cost-effective technologies for CO2 capture 
from industrial sources such as coal-fired power plants to minimise 
CO2 emissions and combat global warming. 

CO2 capture using porous solid sorbents (substances 
which have the property of collecting molecules 
of another substance by absorption or adsorption) 
appears to be a promising solution. Among them, 
porous carbon materials are particularly suited 
to CO2 capture because of their microporosity 
(containing very narrow pores), ease of fabrication 
and excellent chemical, thermal and mechanical 
stability. Porous carbons have been produced since 
antiquity by charring coal and charcoal has been 
used for the purification of water and as a medicine.

However, achieving acceptable attachment rates 
of CO2 from combustion exhaust gas streams of 
coal‑fired power plants to the surface of the sorbent 
remains a challenge. Approaches to improving CO2 
uptake of porous carbons have focused on chemical 
activation. These methods have disadvantages such 
as greater complexity and cost. 

At CSIRO’s Queensland Centre for Advanced 
Technologies the research is focused on 
developing a simple and cost-effective way to 
fabricate physically activated carbon composite 
monoliths that contain honeycomb structures 
with superior CO2 sorption properties. Studies in 
the Lab determine the pore size of the sorbent, 
CO2 adsorption rates under different conditions 
(heat and pressure) as well as the time needed to 
capture the CO2 from a gas stream.

Fabricated (HMCFC) length: 80mm, 
diameter: 30mm, number of channels: 17

Microscopic morphology



Carbon capture

Activities

a. Vocabulary: match the correct meaning

WORD

MEANING

widespread

The outside or upper layer of something

combustion

Catching or trapping something

capture

Action of manufacturing something

fabrication

The process of burning something

charring

A way of dealing with a situation

surface

Found or distribituted over a large area

approaches (noun)

The state of something

conditions

Partially burn so as to blacken the surface





b. Synonyms: find a synonym for each of the following words

WORD

SYNONYM

thermal

combat

substance

challenge

superior

promising

rates





c. Comprehension: answer the following questions

Where is the research taking place?

Where is the CO2 captured from?

What is the process of CO2 hoping to combat?

Since when have porous carbons been made?

What are the disadvantages of chemical activation?


What type of monoliths is CSIRO developing?