In a new step: converting carbon dioxide into industrially safe and useful materials

The system of converting carbon emissions into useful materials may need some time in order to be economically exploited.

A group of engineers at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Cincinnati, USA, have succeeded in developing a promising electrochemical system that can convert harmful carbon emissions from power plants and chemical plants into useful materials that can be used in many industries.

The study was published in Nature Catalysis on March 3, in collaboration with the University of California-Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

According to the study, the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is a promising process that can generate some valuable chemicals sustainably, and it is the process that Professor Jinji Wu and his students relied on in the study to convert carbon dioxide into ethylene, a material with many industrial uses.

low carbon economy

In the press release issued by the University of Cincinnati, Professor Wu, an assistant professor at the college, explains the goal of the research, saying, “The world is now moving towards a low carbon economy. Carbon dioxide is mainly emitted by chemical industries and power plants. We are converting that carbon dioxide into ethylene to reduce the carbon footprint.

A low carbon economy means that various industries depend on energy sources that do not cause an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide. These emissions are a major cause of climate change that the world is witnessing, which has been evident since the mid-20th century.

As the study explained, the process of converting carbon materials resulting from emissions - or carbon dioxide - into polycarbonate materials - which are useful materials in industries such as ethylene - includes two sequential stages: the first is the conversion of carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using a specific catalyst, Then convert carbon monoxide to polycarbonate materials using another catalyst.

“The importance of using a two-stage conversion process is to increase the rate of conversion of carbon dioxide to ethylene, and to increase the amount of ethylene produced overall, by adopting a low-cost strategy,” adds Tiano Zhang, a study co-author.

Not the first attempt

This study isn't the first attempt to tap into carbon emissions. Zhang has led previous research to explore ways to convert carbon dioxide into methane, which can be used as rocket fuel during Mars exploration campaigns.

"The results of this study can be applied to many industries, ranging from cement and iron factories, to the oil and gas industries," Zhang adds.

The problem of converting carbon dioxide to ethylene is that this process requires a lot of energy, and that energy can be saved if the linkage between carbon monoxide produced in the first stage of the process is improved with the copper-containing catalyst, and the presence of such energy contributes to increasing ethylene production.

To achieve this goal, the researchers designed two models of electrodes known as "segmented gas-diffusion electrodes", which helped to quickly convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, store it - inside the reaction - for a long time, and then consume it. To increase the yield of the beneficial polycarbonate products, ethylene in that study.

Zhang speaks, referring to his later predictions, "We can use this technology in the future to reduce carbon emissions, and even turn them into a financial gain, so that carbon emissions reductions will not become costly later."

Professor Wu calls the ethylene produced by the conversion process "green ethylene", because it is made using renewable sources.

Zhang explained that the system of converting carbon emissions into useful materials may need some time in order to be economically exploited, but he was very optimistic about what had been achieved in the past ten years, so he expected more achievements in the coming years.