Cost competitive and easily accessible fossil fuels are the dominant energy source powering our society. However, burning fossil fuels emits significant amount of CO₂, a greenhouse gas that can cause global warming and climate change. Therefore, mitigating CO₂ emissions from the use of fossil fuels is imperative. Among all the options, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered the best near-term solution.

The CO₂ capture technologies currently being developed are targeting three point sources related combustion and gasification processes: post-combustion, oxyfuel combustion and pre-combustion. The state-of-the-art CO₂ capture methods are primarily based on reversible chemical/physical absorptions/ adsorptions principles. A grand challenge to these technologies is the high cost and energy penalty. Developing advanced cost-effective and energy-efficient carbon capture technologies is therefore highly desirable.

In this presentation, we show by extensive experimental data and theoretical analysis that two classes of mixed ion and electron conductors are promising candidate membranes for high-flux, high-selectivity, cost-effective and energy-efficient carbon capture based on the electrochemical principles. By combining these membranes with proper conversion mechanisms, the captured CO₂ can be instantly converted back to a fuel form, making the overall process carbon neutral.