{"id":98394,"date":"2021-10-11T07:03:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T05:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=98394"},"modified":"2021-10-09T11:57:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-09T09:57:10","slug":"carbon-dioxide-reactor-makes-martian-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/carbon-dioxide-reactor-makes-martian-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon dioxide reactor makes ‘Martian fuel’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science assistant professor Jingjie Wu and his students used a carbon catalyst in a reactor to convert carbon dioxide into methane. Known as the \u201cSabatier reaction\u201d from the late French chemist Paul Sabatier, it\u2019s a process the International Space Station uses to scrub the carbon dioxide from air the astronauts breathe and generate rocket fuel to keep the station in high orbit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Wu is thinking much bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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UC chemical engineering assistant professor Jingjie Wu, left and doctoral student Tianyu Zhang are experimenting with different catalysts to convert carbon dioxide to storable fuel to address climate change. Photo\/Andrew Higley\/UC Creative + Brand<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Martian atmosphere is composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide. Astronauts could save half the fuel they need for a return trip home by making what they need on the red planet once they arrive, Wu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a gas station on Mars. You could easily pump carbon dioxide through this reactor and produce methane for a rocket,\u201d Wu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC\u2019s study was published in\u00a0the journal Nature Communications<\/em><\/a>\u00a0with collaborators from Rice University, Shanghai University and East China University of Science and Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wu began his career in chemical engineering by studying fuel cells for electric vehicles but began looking at carbon dioxide conversion in his chemical engineering lab about 10 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UC
UC chemical engineer Jingjie Wu holds up the reactor where a catalyst converts carbon dioxide into methane. UC’s research makes him optimistic that scientists will be able to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Photo\/Andrew Higley\/UC Creative + Brand<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realized that greenhouse gases were going to be a big issue in society,\u201d Wu said. \u201cA lot of countries realized that carbon dioxide is a big issue for the sustainable development of our society. That\u2019s why I think we need to achieve carbon neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden Administration has set a goal of achieving a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas pollutants by 2030 and an economy that relies on renewable energy by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat means we\u2019ll have to recycle carbon dioxide,\u201d Wu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wu and his students, including lead author and UC doctoral candidate Tianyu Zhang, are experimenting with different catalysts such as graphene quantum dots \u2014 layers of carbon just nanometers big \u2014 that can increase the yield of methane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Right now we have excess green energy that we just throw away. We can store this excess renewable energy in chemicals.” Said Jingjie Wu,UC assistant professor of chemical engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wu said the process holds promise to help mitigate climate change. But it also has a big commercial advantage in producing fuel as a byproduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe process is 100 times more productive than it was just 10 years ago. So you can imagine that progress will come faster and faster,\u201d Wu said. \u201cIn the next 10 years, we\u2019ll have a lot of startup companies to commercialize this technique.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wu\u2019s students are using different catalysts to produce not only methane but ethylene. Called the world\u2019s most important chemical, ethylene is used in the manufacture of plastics, rubber, synthetic clothing and other products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the future we\u2019ll develop other catalysts that can produce more products,\u201d said Zhang, a doctoral student in chemical engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like his professor, Zhang said he sees a bright future for green energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGreen energy will be very important. In the future, it will represent a huge market. So I wanted to work on it,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UC
UC chemical engineers are experimenting with different catalysts to convert carbon dioxide into methane and other fuels. Photo\/Andrew Higley\/UC Creative + Brand<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Synthesizing fuel from carbon dioxide becomes even more commercially viable when coupled with renewable energy such as solar or wind power, Wu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now we have excess green energy that we just throw away. We can store this excess renewable energy in chemicals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process is scalable for use in power plants that can generate tons of carbon dioxide. And it\u2019s efficient since the conversion can take place right where excess carbon dioxide is produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wu said advances in fuel production from carbon dioxide make him more confident that humans will set foot on Mars in his lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now if you want to come back from Mars, you would need to bring twice as much fuel, which is very heavy,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in the future, you\u2019ll need other fuels. So we can produce methanol from carbon dioxide and use them to produce other downstream materials. Then maybe one day we could live on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UC
UC assistant professor Jingjie Wu, left, and UC doctoral student Tianyu Zhang are investigating new ways to convert carbon dioxide to fuel in Wu’s chemical engineering lab. Photo\/Andrew Higley\/UC Creative + Brand<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science assistant professor Jingjie Wu and his students used a carbon catalyst in a reactor to convert carbon dioxide into methane. Known as the \u201cSabatier reaction\u201d from the late French chemist Paul Sabatier, it\u2019s a process the International Space Station uses to scrub the carbon dioxide from air the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"University of Cincinnati engineers are developing new ways to convert greenhouse gases to fuel to address climate change and get astronauts home from Mars","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[5838,10744,14120,12366,10743],"supplier":[19163,574,19164,19135],"class_list":["post-98394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-carboncapture","tag-catalysis","tag-fuels","tag-useco2","supplier-east-china-university-of-science-and-technology","supplier-rice-university-houston","supplier-shanghai-university","supplier-university-of-cincinnati"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98394","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98394"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=98394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}