Game-Changing Process Mitigates CO2 Emissions

Release Date: October 21, 2015

Game-Changing Process Mitigates CO2 Emissions Using Renewable Energy

Gold nanoparticles are at the heart of a new process conceived and developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) that can efficiently convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into usable chemicals and fuels—a breakthrough that could lead to an effective industrial scale way to reduce CO₂ emissions for a positive impact on the world’s environment. The innovation was recently detailed by NETL in the American Chemical Society (ACS) publication ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.  

An effective CO₂ conversion process must change CO₂ from a waste product into a useful feedstock in an environmentally sustainable way, allowing the manufacture of renewable fuels and chemicals at costs comparable to more traditional processes. The problem is that most fossil fuel-powered CO₂ conversion processes are currently “carbon positive” and do not help mitigate CO₂ emissions. The process developed by NETL is a “carbon neutral” energy cycle, using renewable energy sources to recycle waste CO₂ into chemicals and fuels without generating new CO₂ emissions. The process will help slow global climate change by limiting CO₂ emitted to the atmosphere, offer an environmentally friendly supplement to traditional energy sources, and enable sustainable use of our current fossil fuel resources.

Researchers developed a special form of gold nanoparticle that contains exactly 25 gold atoms to convert CO₂. This “Au25” catalyst proved to be highly efficient; researchers were able to power a small CO₂ reactor with inexpensive renewable energy sources, such as solar panels and solar-rechargeable batteries obtained from retail hobby shops.

Data obtained from the study also informs critical performance estimates needed to move the carbon-neutral energy cycle out of the lab and into industrially relevant applications. Based on their results, the research team estimates that state-of-the-art renewable energy sources like solar-cells and wind turbines are sufficient to convert metric tonnes of CO₂ per day.

The peer-reviewed paper, titled “Efficient Electrochemical CO₂ Conversion Powered by Renewable Energy ,” was recently published in the ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces journal (volume 7, issue 28, pp. 15626-15632). The work was also recently featured as a nanotechnology spotlight in the online technology news outlet Nanowerk .   

Link to the original article via NETL