Researchers scale up carbon-recycling catalysts, lower costs
University of Mississippi researcher Ahmed Badreldin and Carter Racine, a mechanical engineering doctoral student at Texas A&M University, say they developed a simpler, lower-cost method to produce carbon-recycling catalysts at much larger scales, the researchers reported in the journal ACS Omega.
Most advanced nanostructured catalysts are made at the milligram scale, Badreldin said, creating a bottleneck for commercial adoption. “Most advanced nanostructured catalysts are being developed right now at the milligram scale – often around 50 to 100 milligrams – and they’re relying on conventional, silver-based catalysts,” said Badreldin, assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Mississippi. “We have successfully showcased that in a single synthesis, we can make 75-gram batches without losing performance of advanced single-atom electrocatalysts.”
The researchers said the work addresses a key step in converting carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, a building block for fuels, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Carbon dioxide accounts for 80% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the United States produced about 5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2022, the researchers noted. “It really is the simplest form of carbon we can have, and if we pair it with green hydrogen, we can use those building blocks to make all of the chemicals that would otherwise be produced with virgin fossil fuels,” Racine said.
The study said using a nickel-and-iron single-atom catalyst design could reduce the cost of recycling to $145 per ton, about $255 below the current market price, and produce roughly 25% fewer emissions than current methods. Racine said larger batch production also reduces time, energy and logistical barriers. “If we can make 75 grams in a batch — like we are in this study — we can make enough catalysts for a large commercial implementation of these technologies in a few days,” he said.
Badreldin said the electrochemical setup is modular and could let companies scale production to meet specific needs and decentralize supply chains. Racine said the remaining challenge is long-term stability. “Our future research is looking at figuring out long-term stability,” he said. “If we want those facilities to use this, we have to have a model that can operate for nearly a year. That’s what we are, and everybody is, trying to figure out now.”
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