{"id":139206,"date":"2024-02-22T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T06:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=139206"},"modified":"2024-02-20T10:34:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T09:34:02","slug":"uc-engineers-co2-conversion-helps-industry-addresses-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/uc-engineers-co2-conversion-helps-industry-addresses-climate\/","title":{"rendered":"UC engineers’ CO2 conversion helps industry, addresses climate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Engineers at the University of Cincinnati created a more efficient way of converting carbon dioxide into valuable products while simultaneously addressing climate change.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his chemical engineering lab in UC\u2019s College of Engineering and Applied Science, Associate Professor Jingjie Wu and his team found that a modified copper catalyst improves the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into ethylene, the key ingredient in plastic and a myriad of other uses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethylene has been called \u201cthe world\u2019s most important chemical.\u201d It is certainly among the most commonly produced chemicals, used in everything from textiles to antifreeze to vinyl. The chemical industry generated 225 million metric tons of ethylene in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wu said the process holds promise for one day producing ethylene through green energy instead of fossil fuels. It has the added benefit of removing carbon from the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cEthylene is a pivotal platform chemical globally, but the conventional steam-cracking process for its production emits substantial carbon dioxide,\u201d Wu<\/strong> said. \u201cBy utilizing carbon dioxide as a feedstock rather than depending on fossil fuels, we can effectively recycle carbon dioxide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The study was published in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In his chemical engineering lab, Associate Professor Jingjie Wu experiments with new ways to convert carbon dioxide into useful industrial products. Photo\/Andrew Higley\/UC Marketing + Brand<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Wu\u2019s students, including lead author and UC graduate Zhengyuan Li, collaborated with Rice University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University and Arizona State University. Li received a prestigious graduate student award last year from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.<\/p>\n\n\n

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UC College of Engineering and Applied Science graduate Zhengyuan Li was lead author of a research project to convert carbon dioxide to ethylene. Photo\/Jingjie Wu<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide produces two primary carbon products, ethylene and ethanol. Researchers found that using a modified copper catalyst produced more ethylene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur research offers essential insights into the divergence between ethylene and ethanol during electrochemical CO2<\/sub> reduction and proposes a viable approach to directing selectivity toward ethylene,\u201d lead author Li<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis leads to an impressive 50% increase in ethylene selectivity,\u201d Wu<\/strong> said. \u201cIdeally, the goal is to produce a single product rather than multiple ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Its Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office is leading efforts to reduce fossil fuels and carbon emissions in industry wherever possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li said the next step is refining the process to make it more commercially viable. The conversion system loses efficiency as byproducts of the reaction such as potassium hydroxide begin forming on the copper catalyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe electrode stability must be improved for commercial deployment. Our next focus is to enhance stability and extend its operation from 1,000 to 100,000 hours,\u201d Li<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Wu said these new technologies will help make the chemical industry greener and more energy efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe overarching objective is to decarbonize chemical production by utilizing renewable electricity and sustainable feedstock,\u201d Wu<\/strong> said. \u201cElectrifying the conversion of carbon dioxide to ethylene marks a significant stride in decarbonizing the chemical sector.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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UC Associate Professor Jingjie Wu holds multiple U.S. patents on chemical engineering technology designed to improve industry. Photo\/Andrew Higley\/UC Marketing + Brand<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Engineers at the University of Cincinnati created a more efficient way of converting carbon dioxide into valuable products while simultaneously addressing climate change. In his chemical engineering lab in UC\u2019s College of Engineering and Applied Science, Associate Professor Jingjie Wu and his team found that a modified copper catalyst improves the electrochemical conversion of carbon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"National research team led by UC professor develops more efficient system to address climate change - a new approach to converting CO2 into ethylene","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[10744,23588,22843,10416,15806,10408,10743],"supplier":[541,4469,2437,574,23589,19135,11236],"class_list":["post-139206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-carboncapture","tag-carbonconversion","tag-carbonrecycling","tag-circulareconomy","tag-ethylene","tag-greenchemistry","tag-useco2","supplier-arizona-state-university","supplier-brookhaven-national-laboratory","supplier-oak-ridge-national-laboratory","supplier-rice-university-houston","supplier-stony-brook-university-new-york","supplier-university-of-cincinnati","supplier-u-s-department-of-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139206"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=139206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}