New Catalyst Discovered for Converting Carbon Dioxide to Liquid Fuel

[Guest_Jim_*]

Finding ways to utilize waste products is always a good idea, as it can reduce the amount of other resources we rely on. Carbon dioxide is no different than any other waste product in this way, and teams across the planet have been looking for new ways to use it. Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have recently discovered a new catalyst that could make converting CO₂ into methanol easier than it ever has been.

Carbon dioxide is made by a large number of chemical processes, including the combustion of fuels, so the idea of converting it back into a fuel is especially tantalizing. Currently catalysts of copper, zinc oxide, and aluminum oxide help the gas be converted into methanol, but they have a limited number of binding sites, which requires the CO₂ is put under pressure. Putting the gas under pressure takes a lot of energy, but this new catalyst, a copper tetramer has all of its binding sites open, allowing it to work at lower pressures. A tetramer is a cluster of four atoms, in this case copper atoms that are on top of a thin film of aluminum oxide.

By not requiring the CO₂ to be pressurized, the energy required to convert it to methanol is significantly reduced, and while this research demonstrates the potential of this new catalyst, there is still a lot of work to do. It is possible that the tetramers break down over time, in an industrial setting, and producing them at industrial scales may prove very difficult. Naturally more research is required, but the researchers are also looking to find other catalysts that may perform even better.

Source: Argonne National Laboratory

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