Wu is thinking much larger.
UC chemical engineering assistant professor Jingjie Wu, left and doctoral student Tianyu Zhang are try out different catalysts to transform carbon dioxide to storable fuel to resolve environment modification. Credit: Andrew Higley/UC Creative
The Martian environment is made up almost completely of co2. Astronauts might conserve half the fuel they require for a return trip house by making what they require on the red planet once they get here, Wu said.
” Its like a gasoline station on Mars. You might quickly pump co2 through this reactor and produce methane for a rocket,” Wu said.
UCs research study was published in the journal Nature Communications with collaborators from Rice University, Shanghai University, and East China University of Science and Technology.
Wu started his career in chemical engineering by studying fuel cells for electric automobiles however began taking a look at co2 conversion in his chemical engineering lab about 10 years earlier.
UC chemical engineer Jingjie Wu holds up the reactor where a catalyst converts co2 into methane. UCs research makes him optimistic that researchers will have the ability to remove co2 from the environment. Credit: Andrew Higley/UC Creative + Brand
” I realized that greenhouse gases were going to be a big issue in society,” Wu stated. “A lot of nations recognized that co2 is a big problem for the sustainable advancement of our society. Thats why I think we need to attain carbon neutrality.”
The Biden Administration has set a goal of achieving a 50% decrease in greenhouse gas pollutants by 2030 and an economy that counts on renewable resource by 2050.
” That implies well have to recycle carbon dioxide,” Wu stated.
Wu and his trainees, consisting of lead author and UC doctoral candidate Tianyu Zhang, are try out various catalysts such as graphene quantum dots– layers of carbon simply nanometers huge– that can increase the yield of methane.
” Right now we have excess green energy that we simply get rid of. We can store this excess renewable resource in chemicals.”
— Jingjie Wu, UC assistant professor of chemical engineering
Wu said the procedure holds promise to help reduce climate modification. However it also has a big commercial advantage in producing fuel as a by-product.
” The process is 100 times more productive than it was simply 10 years earlier. So you can picture that progress will come faster and faster,” Wu stated. “In the next 10 years, well have a great deal of startup companies to commercialize this strategy.”
Wus trainees are using various catalysts to produce not only methane however ethylene. Called the worlds essential chemical, ethylene is utilized in the manufacture of plastics, rubber, artificial clothes, and other items.
” Green energy will be really important. In the future, it will represent a substantial market. I desired to work on it,” Zhang said.
An experimental reactor utilizes graphene quantum dots as a catalyst to transform carbon dioxide into methane. Credit: Andrew Higley/UC Creative
Synthesizing fuel from co2 ends up being a lot more commercially viable when coupled with renewable energy such as solar or wind power, Wu said.
” Right now we have excess green energy that we just toss away. We can save this excess renewable resource in chemicals,” he said.
The process is scalable for usage in power plants that can produce lots of co2. And its effective given that the conversion can occur right where excess carbon dioxide is produced.
UC chemical engineer Jingjie Wu is explore different catalysts to transform co2 to fuels such as methane to resolve environment change. Credit: Andrew Higley/UC Creative
Wu stated advances in fuel production from carbon dioxide make him more positive that humans will set foot on Mars in his lifetime.
” Right now if you want to come back from Mars, you would require to bring two times as much fuel, which is very heavy,” he stated. We can produce methanol from carbon dioxide and use them to produce other downstream products.
Referral: “Regulation of practical groups on graphene quantum dots directs selective CO2 to CH4 conversion” by Tianyu Zhang, Weitao Li, Kai Huang, Huazhang Guo, Zhengyuan Li, Yanbo Fang, Ram Manohar Yadav, Vesselin Shanov, Pulickel M. Ajayan, Liang Wang, Cheng Lian and Jingjie Wu, 6 September 2021, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/ s41467-021-25640-1.
University of Cincinnati chemical engineering student Tianyu Zhang holds up a vial of graphene used as a catalyst to transform co2 into methane. Credit: Andrew Higley/UC Creative
A gas station on Mars? Chemical engineers imagine the possibilities.
Engineers at the University of Cincinnati are developing new methods to transform greenhouse gases to fuel to address environment change and get astronauts house from Mars.
UC College of Engineering and Applied Science assistant teacher Jingjie Wu and his students used a carbon catalyst in a reactor to convert co2 into methane. Called the “Sabatier reaction” from the late French chemist Paul Sabatier, its a process the International Space Station uses to scrub the carbon dioxide from air the astronauts breathe and produce rocket fuel to keep the station in high orbit.
UC chemical engineer Jingjie Wu holds up the reactor where a driver converts carbon dioxide into methane. UCs research study makes him optimistic that researchers will be able to get rid of carbon dioxide from the environment. “A lot of countries recognized that carbon dioxide is a huge problem for the sustainable advancement of our society. Thats why I believe we require to achieve carbon neutrality.”
We can produce methanol from carbon dioxide and use them to produce other downstream products.