CAER’s Bradley Irvin is principal investigator on the project which aims to make capturing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and industrial facilities significantly less expensive. Photo by Dave Melanson | UK CAER. LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 10, 2021) — A University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) team has received a grant to develop a novel, acoustic-assisted process that would make capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal-fired power plants and industrial facilities significantly less expensive. The grant was funded by the University Coalition for Fossil Energy Research (UCFER), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) supported program. This project will build upon CAER’s world-renowned carbon dioxide capture research. CAER’s CO2 system employs an absorption column and utilizes solvents to capture carbon dioxide. Essentially, the solvent absorbs the CO2, allowing the system to extract and remove the carbon dioxide from the combustion flue gas at a fossil fuel-based energy production plant.