KAIST catalyst 'major step to carbon circular economy'

The advance is claimed to be a major step toward a circular carbon economy and could help efforts to reverse global warming. The study has been published in Science.

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“We set out to develop an effective catalyst that can convert large amounts of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane without failure,” said Cafer T. Yavuz, paper author and associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of chemistry at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology).

The catalyst is made from nickel, magnesium, and molybdenum and initiates and speeds up the rate of reaction that converts carbon dioxide and methane into hydrogen. The team said it can work efficiently for over a month.

This dry reforming process converts gases such as carbon dioxide into more useful chemicals that could be refined for use in fuel, plastics, or pharmaceuticals. It is an effective process, but it previously required rare and expensive metals such as platinum and rhodium to induce a brief and inefficient chemical reaction.