£1.4 Million Funding from EPSRC to Develop New Technology that Produces Car Fuel from Carbon dioxide

Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is providing £1.4 million to three universities to develop a new technology that helps to produce new products from carbon dioxide such as plastics and car fuel.

The University of Bath is leading the research in partnership with engineers and scientists from the Universities of West of England and Bristol. The researchers are developing a new kind of porous material that will absorb carbon dioxide from air and convert into it into new products.

Factory chimneys can be lined with these revolutionary porous materials, which will absorb the carbon dioxide and helping to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. The technology will use solar power for powering the process, making it a 100% green product, contributing positively to the environment.

University of Bristol’s researcher Dr. David Fermin commented that large-scale carbon dioxide capture and processing technologies are not available at present. The presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is very thin and it has very low chemical reactivity. The project aims to develop a carbon capture technology by combining innovative material design with biocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and heterogeneous catalysis, Dr. Fermin said.

Researchers from various disciplines are working in this collaborative project including scientists from Institute for Sustainable Energy & the Environment at the University of Bath, University of the West of England’s School of Life Sciences and University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry.

RCUK Fellow from the Department of Chemistry at Bath, Dr Petra Cameron, said the use of solar power, a clean, renewable energy, for the process to capture and recycle carbon dioxide will help to cut down the amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere.

Though the technology is in its nascent stages, the scientists working on the project are expecting that this innovative carbon capture technology will help the world in its efforts to fight against climate change.

Source:  http://www.epsrc.ac.uk