Ethylene is a key component of the world’s vast appetite for plastics. But it’s normally made using fossils as a feedstock, and is energy-intensive to produce. So the chemicals industry has long sought a way to biologically manufacture ethylene. It would be a double-win for clean energy: it would capture CO2 and displace the fossil-based feedstocks. Connor O’Neil at NREL describes new research that makes ethylene in a “one-step” process fuelled … [Read more...]
Converting captured CO2 directly into fuels could get simpler, cheaper
Converting captured CO2 directly into fuels (or other products) at scale seems an effective way to mitigate emissions. But most of the conversion methods, including electrochemical, thermocatalytic, photothermal, or photochemical processes, have not proved very effective. David Chandler at MIT describes how researchers there have identified the main stumbling block and found a very simple solution. Basically, at the molecular level, the contact … [Read more...]
CCUS “gasphilic” process could double the conversion rate of CO2 into useful fuels
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is proving very expensive. So rather than simply store the CO2 underground it’s better to turn it into something that you can sell. Hence, much work is being directed at turning CO2 into transportation fuels or chemical feedstocks by focussing on the science of reactive materials: the other chemicals in the soup, using different catalysts, and even designing the right nanostructures to maximise the results. MIT’s … [Read more...]
