Joint press release by the Advanced Institute of Materials Research (WPI-AIMR), Tohoku University; and Hokkaido University.
From harmful to helpful: researchers have developed a record-breaking method to convert carbon dioxide into fuel.
What if we could transform harmful pollution into a helpful energy source? As we strive towards carbon neutrality, researching energy innovations that reduce pollution is crucial. Researchers at Tohoku University, Hokkaido University, and AZUL Energy, Inc. developed a streamlined process for converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbon monoxide (CO) - a key precursor for synthetic fuels. Their method achieved record-breaking efficiency, cutting down the required time from 24 hours to just 15 minutes.
"CO2-to-CO conversion is currently a hot topic to address climate change, but the conventional techniques had major pitfalls that we wanted to address," remarks Liu Tengyi (WPI-AIMR at Tohoku University). "The materials were expensive, unstable, had limited selectivity, and took long to prepare. It just wouldn't be feasible to use them in an actual industrial setting."
The full details were published in the journal Advanced Science on 04 April 2025.
The complete press release can be downlaoded as a PDF.
