Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have found a way to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into a resource that can be in the creation of industrial products like fuel and plastics.
Announcing the discovery on June 11, UNSW said if adopted on a large scale, it believes “this process could give the world breathing space as it transitions towards a green economy.”
Researchers Rahman Daiyan and Emma Lovell from the UNSW School of Chemical Engineering published their discovery on June 11 in the journal Advanced Engineering Materials.
In the paper, Daiyan and Lovell explained that if they used an open flame, burning at 20,000 degrees, they could make zinc oxide.
The process created nanoparticles that converted the waste carbon dioxide into something called syngas—a mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide utilised to manufacture industrial products.
“Syngas is often considered the chemical equivalent of Lego because the two building blocks—hydrogen and carbon monoxide—can be used in different ratios to make things like synthetic diesel, methanol, alcohol or plastics, which are very important industrial precursors,” Lovell said.
Lovell explained that these precursors can then be used to make “vital industrial chemicals.”
The researchers said their method is “cheaper and more scalable to the requirements of heavy industry than what is available today.”
“At the moment you generate syngas by using natural gas—so from fossil fuels,” Daiyan said.
“But we’re using waste carbon dioxide and then converting it to syngas in a ratio depending on which industry you want to use it in,” Daiyan explained.
The researchers argue that this means they can close the carbon loop in industrial processes that create harmful greenhouse gases.
“The idea is that we can take a point source of CO2, such as a coal-fired power plant, a gas power plant, or even a natural gas mine where you liberate a huge amount of pure CO2 and we can essentially retrofit this technology at the back end of these plants. Then you could capture that produced CO2 and convert it into something that is hugely valuable to industry,” said Lovell.
David Adams
Article URL : https://www.theepochtimes.com/researchers-find-a-way-to-turn-waste-co2-into-industrial-materials_3385817.html