8/13/2023 0 Comments Carbon dioxide chemical formulaThe group's next project will be to test their nanomaterials in a flue gas setting to ensure they are tolerant to the harsh conditions and other chemicals found in industrial waste gas.Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula Ca CO 3. Then you could capture that produced CO 2 and convert it into something that is hugely valuable to industry," says Dr Lovell. "The idea is that we can take a point source of CO 2, such as a coal fired power plant, a gas power plant, or even a natural gas mine where you liberate a huge amount of pure CO 2 and we can essentially retrofit this technology at the back end of these plants. While the duo have already built an electrolyser that has been tested with waste CO 2 gas that contains contaminants, scaling the technology up to the point where it could convert all of the waste carbon dioxide emitted by a power plant is still a way down the track. And by controlling how we burn it, we can control those ratios of desired syngas building blocks." "We don't need to worry about complicated synthesis techniques that use really expensive metals and precursors - we can burn it and in 10 minutes have these particles ready to go. "It means it can be used industrially, it can be scaled, it's super quick to make the materials and very effective," she says. "Past attempts have used expensive materials such as palladium, but this is the first instance where a very cheap and abundant material, mined locally in Australia, has been successfully applied to the problem of waste carbon dioxide conversion," Dr Daiyan says.ĭr Lovell adds that what also makes this method appealing is using the FSP flame system to create and control these valuable materials. In choosing zinc oxide as their catalyst, the researchers have ensured that their solution has remained a cheaper alternative to what has been previously attempted in this space. But a ratio of four parts carbon monoxide and one part hydrogen is suitable for the creation of plastics, Dr Daiyan says. "But we're using waste carbon dioxide and then converting it to syngas in a ratio depending on which industry you want to use it in."įor example, a one to one ratio between the carbon monoxide and hydrogen lends itself to syngas that can be used as fuel. "At the moment you generate syngas by using natural gas - so from fossil fuels," Dr Daiyan says. And by making small adjustments to the way the nanoparticles are burned by the FSP technique, they can determine the eventual mix of the syngas building blocks produced by the carbon dioxide conversion. The researchers say in effect, they are closing the carbon loop in industrial processes that create harmful greenhouse gases. When we pass the waste CO 2 in, it is processed using electricity and is released from an outlet as syngas in a mix of CO and hydrogen," he says. "Waste CO 2 from say, a power plant or cement factory, can be passed through this electrolyser, and inside we have our flame-sprayed zinc oxide material in the form of an electrode. In an industrial setting, an electrolyser containing the FSP-produced zinc oxide particles could be used to convert the waste CO 2 into useful permutations of syngas, says Dr Daiyan. "So essentially what we're doing is converting CO 2 into these precursors that can be used to make all these vital industrial chemicals." "Syngas is often considered the chemical equivalent of Lego because the two building blocks - hydrogen and carbon monoxide - can be used in different ratios to make things like synthetic diesel, methanol, alcohol or plastics, which are very important industrial precursors. "We used an open flame, which burns at 2000 degrees, to create nanoparticles of zinc oxide that can then be used to convert CO 2, using electricity, into syngas," says Dr Lovell. The researchers say this method is cheaper and more scalable to the requirements of heavy industry than what is available today. The researchers, who carried out their work in the Particles and Catalysis Research Laboratory led by Scientia Professor Rose Amal, show that by making zinc oxide at very high temperatures using a technique called flame spray pyrolysis (FSP), they can create nanoparticles which act as the catalyst for turning carbon dioxide into 'syngas' - a mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide used in the manufacture of industrial products. In a paper published today in the journal Advanced Energy Materials, Dr Rahman Daiyan and Dr Emma Lovell from UNSW's School of Chemical Engineering detail a way of creating nanoparticles that promote conversion of waste carbon dioxide into useful industrial components. And if validated in an industrial setting and adopted on a large scale, the process could give the world breathing space as it transitions towards a green economy.
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