Catalyst cuts steps in capture and conversion of CO2

Illinois Institute of Technology Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Mohammad Asadi has received $1.9m from the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E) to scale up his process. 

“Once we capture the carbon dioxide, we can convert it to other carbon-based products, such as ethanol, which is the main chemical behind many disinfectants,” Asadi said in a statement. “It has a billion-dollar market. It’s one of those key chemicals used in many, many processes and applications.”

The process is centred on a catalyst developed by Asadi developed. He has also received $546,868 from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to further investigate the science behind how the catalyst works, with the aim of optimising its effectiveness and exploring whether utilising the same technique may improve other common electrocatalytic processes.

Existing processes capture and convert carbon dioxide in separate steps, but Asadi’s catalyst develops this idea by facilitating the capture and conversion in one step, which reduces the complexity and cost of the process.