Capture Carbon & Generate Fuel At The Same Time

Researchers have developed a catalyst that can simultaneously remove carbon dioxide and generate new diesel fuel.

AsianScientist (Nov. 23, 2016) – What if you could not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also generate new fuel in the process, all in one single step? Researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology have shown that it is possible, publishing their results in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.

With the enactment of the Paris Agreement, there has been rising interest in carbon capture and utilization. Existing catalysts used to speed up the reaction between hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) mostly produce low molecular weight substances such as methane or methanol and only inefficiently reduce CO2 levels.

In the present study led by Professor Lee Jae Sung, researchers used a new delafossite-based catalyst to directly convert CO2 conversion into liquid hydrocarbon-based fuels that can be used by diesel vehicles. The delafossite catalyst is made of inexpensive, earth-abundant copper and steel.

“Diesel fuels have longer chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms compared to mathanol and methane,” said Choi Yo Han, first author of the study. “Using delafossite-CuFeO2 as the catalyst precursor, we can create longer carbon chains and this would allow for the production of diesel.”

This direct CO2-FT synthesis is different from the German car maker Audi’s CO2-to-diesel conversion process, which actually involves two steps: reverse water gas shift reaction to CO followed by CO Fisher-Tropsch (FT) synthesis.

Instead, the delafossite catalyst has a two-fold benefit, removing harmful CO2 from the atmosphere while producing diesel that can be used as an alternative fuel to gasoline. The research team expects that this finding to revolutionize the automobile industry and bring us a step closer to eliminating greenhouse gas.

“We believe the new catalyst breaks through the limitation of CO2-based FT synthesis and will open the avenue for new opportunity for recycling CO2 into valuable fuels and chemicals,” Lee said.



The article can be found at: Choi et al. (2016) Carbon Dioxide Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis: A New Path to Carbon-Neutral Fuels.

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Source: Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

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