China's pioneering project to hydrogenize 95% of CO2 into gasoline

A facility that produces 1,000 tons of gasoline per year from CO2 completed trial operation and technology evaluation on March 4.

According to a press release earlier this week, the project is jointly developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Zhuhai Futian Energy Technology Co. Zoucheng industrial park in Shandong province, eastern China. It uses a metal catalyst to hydrogenate carbon dioxide into a biofuel that is less harmful to the environment.

The pilot facility produces gasoline from CO2 through hydrogenation.

The CO2 hydrogenation technology for gasoline production was first proposed by Sun Jian GE Qingjie and WEI Jian of DICP in a 2017 paper published in the journal Nature Communications. This method not only helps reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but also facilitates the storage and transport of renewable energy.

"A technology that can selectively produce value-added hydrocarbon fuels with high energy densities will provide a new route to advance the low-carbon and clean energy revolution," DICP stressed. However, the selective conversion and activation of CO is a challenge.

Construction on DICP's pioneer facility is completed in 2020. In October 2021, it passed a 72-hour on-site assessment organized by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF) . During the assessment, it performed carbon dioxide and hydrogen conversion with a 95 percent success rate, along with 85 percent gasoline selectivity in all carbon-based products.

It produces a "green and clean" gasoline product with an octane rating of more than 90, in line with China's national VI standard, accompanied by low energy consumption in the whole process.

"This technology will mark a new phase of the world's CO2 technology and provide a strategy to realize the goal of carbon neutrality," the experts said.

The project is supported by the CAS Strategic Priority Research Program on "Major Technologies and Modified Clean Energy Demonstrations", the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Liaoning Talent Program.