Scientists Trip Over Revolutionary CO2-Removing Catalyst

January 24th, 2010 by Timothy B. Hurst

In a fortuitous discovery, chemists have stumbled on a catalyst that strips carbon dioxide from the air and converts it into a useful compound.

Published in the most recent issue of the journal Science (sub. req’d.), researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands have discovered a copper-based catalyst that can literally pull carbon dioxide out of thin air.

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Researchers say the copper-based compound is not ready for primetime–removing carbon dioxide on a large scale–but they hope that the catalyst could one day remove the ubiquitous greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, turning it into organic chemicals.

Elisabeth Bouwman at Leiden University, who led the team that discovered the catalyst, said the selectivity of the new compound is “completely unexpected”.

This is not the first catalyst with a metal core that can pull CO2 from a gas stream, but it is the first that when faced with air, prefers to couple with oxygen molecules.

The system is far from being a practical method of extracting CO2 from the air to combat the buildup of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and global warming because the conversion rates are too low.

So far, Bouwman and her team achieved a conversion rate in the lab that has cycled the system just six times in seven hours, well short of the tens of thousands of cycles per hour needed for efficient conversion.

Follow Tim Hurst on twitter @ecopolitologist

Photo: Jurvetson at flickr under Creative Commons

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Tags: Carbon, carbon dioxide

About the Author

Timothy B. Hurst is the founder of ecopolitology and the executive editor at LiveOAK Media, a media network about the politics of energy and the environment, green business, cleantech, and green living. When not reading, writing, thinking or talking about environmental politics with anyone who will listen, Tim spends his time skiing in Colorado's high country, hiking with his dog, and getting dirty in his vegetable garden.

http://extremegreenvillage.com Bob Henry

I get all excited when I hear this. I imagine a system for submarines first. Then space. Then homes and office spaces.

I hear of that company called Carbon Sciences that SAYS they are going to turn CO2 to fuels which is just a step away from turning fuels to plastics!!

What a team they could make if both businesses and systems can work efficiently, low cost and together. If CO2 can be taken out of the air and can be made into building materials that last for hundreds of years then we have a low cost basis for solving more than one problem.
http://extremegreenvillage.com Bob Henry

I get all excited when I hear this. I imagine a system for submarines first. Then space. Then homes and office spaces.

I hear of that company called Carbon Sciences that SAYS they are going to turn CO2 to fuels which is just a step away from turning fuels to plastics!!

What a team they could make if both businesses and systems can work efficiently, low cost and together. If CO2 can be taken out of the air and can be made into building materials that last for hundreds of years then we have a low cost basis for solving more than one problem.