14 DAY TRIAL // One of the environmental priorities is to capture and store greenhouse gas, while implementing ways of producing less. If carbon-capture technology is added to conventional coal plants, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced. The problem is cost.
The standard method of collecting CO2 increases electricity costs by 80 percent and is the main cause of legislation not passing through, to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions. Normally, a solvent called monoethanolamine (MEA) is used. It captures CO2 and it separates it from other gases. Heat is the only way that carbon dioxide can be released so that it can be stored, the problem is that the energy needed to do this would lower the power output of a coal plant by nearly 30 percent. All this plus the equipment and the materials needed to capture the CO2 are far too expensive.
Researchers at Codexis, a company supporting low carbon economy from Redwood, California, developed a collecting method that uses genetically engineered enzymes, and that could increase electricity costs by less than a third. Technology Review mentions that their method increases the efficiency of a solvent that captures CO2 by a factor of 100, thus reducing the energy needed for capturing and storing the greenhouse gas.
Codexis' scientists genetically altered an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase, that helps a solvent called methyl diethanolamine (MDEA) stick to carbon dioxide. They also modified this enzyme so that it could survive at high temperatures, achieving survival for half an hour at temperatures above 85°C. This is quite encouraging but scientists still have a long way to go as carbon dioxide is released at 130°C.
James Lalonde, the company's vice president of biochemistry and engineering R&D says that even though the Codexis has not released new figures, it has obtained big improvements since the disclosure of these initial results. The company already had successfully produced engineered enzymes for drugs in the past. It developed enzymes for making two drugs: sitagliptin, the active ingredient in the diabetes drug Januvia and atorvastatin, the active ingredient in the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. Its simplifying drug synthesis and reducing waste enzymes, won two "green technology" awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.