Trap carbon dioxide and make sustainable fuels out of it and plastic waste using only solar power

2023-06-20 12:15:13

Researchers have shown how carbon dioxide (CO2) can be captured from industrial processes (or even directly from the air) and transformed into clean, sustainable fuels using only energy from the Sun.

The team, including Erwin Reisner and Sayan Kar, from the University of Cambridge in the UK, have developed the new solar-powered reactor that converts captured carbon dioxide and plastic waste into sustainable fuels and other valuable chemicals.

In tests, carbon dioxide was converted to syngas (synthesis gas), a key component of sustainable liquid fuels; and simultaneously some plastic bottles were turned into glycolic acid, widely used in the cosmetics industry.

Unlike previous tests of this technology, however, which were confined to the laboratory, the team took in carbon dioxide from real-world sources, such as exhaust from industrial facilities or street air.

The researchers managed to capture and concentrate the carbon dioxide and turn it into a sustainable fuel.

Part of the equipment used to capture carbon dioxide from the air and process it for use in fuels, with simultaneous transformation of plastic waste into chemical products for industrial use. (Image: Ariffin Mohamad Annuar)

While improvements are needed before this technology can be used on a large scale, the results represent an important step toward producing clean fuels that sustain the economy but do not require drilling for oil and gas, which is environmentally destructive.

Reisner, Kar, and their colleagues discuss the technical details of their new technology in the academic journal Joule, under the title “Integrated Capture and Solar-driven Utilization of CO2 from Flue Gas and Air.” (Source: NCYT from Amazings)