Argonne National Lab Breakthrough Turns Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol - CleanTechnica

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could do something useful with excess carbon dioxide other than capture it, compress it, and bury it deep in the bottom of the ocean.

According to a press release from ANL, researchers at the lab, working with partners at Northern Illinois University, have discovered a new electrocatalyst that converts carbon dioxide and water into ethanol with very high energy efficiency, high selectivity for the desired final product, and low cost.

“The process resulting from our catalyst would contribute to the circular carbon economy, which entails the reuse of carbon dioxide,” says Di-Jia Liu, senior chemist in Argonne’s chemical sciences and engineering division and also a scientist at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago.

“The process resulting from our catalyst would contribute to the circular carbon economy, which entails the reuse of carbon dioxide,” he says.

The new electrochemical process converts carbon dioxide emitted from industrial processes, such as fossil fuel power plants or alcohol fermentation plants, into valuable commodities at reasonable cost.

It breaks down carbon dioxide and water molecules and selectively reassembles them into ethanol using an external electrical field.

“With this research, we’ve discovered a new catalytic mechanism for converting carbon dioxide and water into ethanol,” said Tao Xu, a professor in physical chemistry and nanotechnology from Northern Illinois University.

​“The mechanism should also provide a foundation for development of highly efficient electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide conversion to a vast array of value-added chemicals.”.

“We have prepared several new catalysts using this approach and found that they are all highly efficient in converting CO2 to other hydrocarbons,” says Liu.

The upshot of this new research is the creation of a process that could reuse and recycle carbon dioxide for fuels and chemicals that today are derived from either oil or natural gas.

What we are witnessing is a convergence of technologies that may result in ways to substantially lower the amount of carbon dioxide that gets added to the atmosphere by industry and at far lower cost than previously thought possible.

If this discovery could be combined with the creation of new recyclable and biodegradable plastics, that would be a major step forward in constructing a circular economy, one that does not destroy the environment in the pursuit of profits.

Tags: Argonne National Lab, carbon capture, circular economy, converting carbon dioxide into fuel, Ethanol