Novel catalyst could improve economic case for carbon capture and storage

The catalyst was developed in the lab of professor Ted Sargent, Northwestern University’s Lynn Hopton Davis and Greg Davis Professor of Chemistry at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering.

“Carbon capture is feasible today from a technical point of view, but not yet from an economic point of view,” Sargent said in a statement. “By using electrochemistry to convert captured carbon into products with established markets, we provide new pathways to improving these economics, as well as a more sustainable source for the industrial chemicals that we still need.”

The international team’s work is detailed in Nature.

“About 90 per cent of the acetic acid market is for feedstock in the manufacture of paints, coatings, adhesives and other products,” said Josh Wicks, one of the paper’s four co-lead authors. “Production at this scale is primarily derived from methanol, which comes from fossil fuels.”