Convert CO2 into carbon fuel

The team of scientists led by Paul Kenis, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Illinois, USA, teamed up with Dioxide Materials researchers to develop an ionic liquid catalyst that follows them. will reduce the need for energy consumption of artificial photosynthesis.

The results of this study are published online in Science magazine .

The catalyst is seen as an end to overcome a major obstacle for the manufacturing industry: at the same time reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere and helping to recreate carbon fuel.

Artificial photosynthesis is the process of converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into useful carbon fuel (based on the effects of chemicals), most notably fuel or carbon compounds are often extracted from petroleum, instead of taking them from biofuels.

However, artificial photosynthesis has not been widely used because the process is too costly.

The first step in producing fuel requires turning CO ₂ into CO. This process requires a lot of electricity, so: the amount of energy (fuel) used to produce fuel is more than the amount of energy (fuel) it produces.

The group of scientists led by Paul Kenis, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Illinois, USA, claims to have overcome this obstacle by using an ionic liquid to create a catalytic reaction, significantly reduces the amount of energy needed to initiate the process of turning CO ₂ into CO.

Ion liquids play a stable intermediate role in the above reaction to save electrical energy during the conversion process.

The researchers used an electrochemical cell as a flow reactor, which uses energy from a solar collector or a wind turbine, to separate CO2 and output. Oxygen from the catalytic reaction between liquid electrolyte and gas diffusion electrodes.

CO2 is then converted into simple carbon fuel like formic acid or methanol, and continues to be refined to produce ethanol and other fuels.

"This application will help reduce the huge amount of CO2 emissions," said Kenis, a professor of engineering and mechanical science, University of Illinois, USA, in a scientific research connection with the Institute. Beckman Advanced Science and Technology. "So a much lower potential has been applied. Applying a much lower potential corresponds to less energy consumption during the transition."

In plants, photosynthesis uses solar energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars and other hydrocarbon compounds. Biofuels are often refined from sugars extracted from crops such as corn, but this is not necessary with artificial photosynthesis.

"The key advantage of this application is that there is no competition with food supplies," said Richard Masel, a principal investigator of the research and executive director of the study of Dioxide Materials. "It will save a lot of money when only needing to transmit electricity instead of transporting biofuels to a CO ₂ refinery to produce ethanol and other fuels."

The next step, researchers hope to solve the problem of throughput. To apply this new technology to commercial applications, researchers need to increase the reaction rate and maximize the conversion process.

"Further research is needed, but this study, now, has given us a significant step forward to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, while the same while helping us to significantly reduce CO ₂ emissions, which is one of the main culprits causing undesirable climate change on a global scale , " said Kenis.