The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has identified the capturing and transportation of CO2 for either permanent storage or conversion into valuable products as a crucial national priority. This is seen as a necessary step to achieve the goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.
A group of international researchers, along with those from Northwestern University, have collaborated to produce acetic acid from carbon monoxide that has been obtained through captured carbon. This groundbreaking technique utilizes a unique catalyst developed in Ted Sargent’s laboratory. Sargent is the Lynn Hopton Davis and Greg Davis Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern.
“Carbon capture is feasible today from a technical point of view, but not yet from an economic point of view,” said Sargent. “By using electrochemistry to convert captured carbon into products with established markets, we provide new pathways to improving these economics, as well as a more sustainable source for the industrial chemicals that we still need.”
Vinayak Dravid, another senior author on the paper and the Abraham Harris Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, is the founding director of the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization (NUANCE) Center, which allowed the team to access diverse capabilities for atomic- and electronic-scale measurements of materials.
“Modern research problems are complex and multifaceted and require diverse yet integrated capabilities to analyze materials down to the atomic scale,” Dravid said. “Colleagues like Ted present us with challenging problems that stimulate our creativity to develop novel ideas and innovative characterization methods.”
Learn more about this breakthrough in the Northwestern Now story “New catalyst transforms carbon dioxide into sustainable byproduct.”