Could this easy-to-make material help replace gasoline?
We all know that the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by burning fossil fuels is one of the worst greenhouse gases being emitted into our atmosphere. But did you know that CO2 could also be put to work in the opposite direction as a potential energy source? A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) are working on just that idea. They say they have developed a new system that could create syngas (an early stage of synthetic natural gas) or even synthetic gasoline out of carbon dioxide. Their research was published this week in the journal Nature Communications.
The work is in its early stages, but so far the team has been able to efficiently and inexpensively convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide (CO), which is already one of the primary components of syngas. Co-lead author Amin Salehi-Khojin, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, said in a press release that he believes “this can open a new field for the design of inexpensive and efficient catalytic systems for the many researchers already working with these easily manipulated advanced carbon materials.”
Converting CO2 to CO is nothing new, but to date it has been accomplished through a two-step process using the same catalyst during both stages. In a switch, the researchers used two different catalysts during the process, something they called a “co-catalyst system.” Salehi-Khojin had already accomplished this in previous research using an ionic liquid for the first step and silver for the second.
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