The School of chemical engineering at the University of New South Wales (Australia) has developed a technology for producing synthesis gas from CO2. Australian scientists were interested not in the process itself, and how from a simple source of raw materials to make a number of challenging and useful materials. Or, in fact, process emissions into a universal raw material for the chemical industry.

The idea is based on the synthesis-gas that composed of monoxide of carbon and hydrogen – basic element of many chemical compounds. It is very similar to the Lego brick, simple in itself, but can become part of an arbitrary complex structure. It needs a lot, a lot of the same “gas brick”. The task that was set before him, Australians, and that is to establish production blocks the synthesis gas from CO2.

The technology uses a new catalyst nanoparticles of zinc oxide. To obtain them the usual zinc oxide is subjected to pyrolysis at a temperature of 2000 °C. When addition of a catalyst carbon dioxide is converted into a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, the desired synthesis gas. The process takes less than 10 minutes and can be easily scaled for processing emissions of CHP plants with different capacities.

The interesting thing is that in the processing of CO2 to “gas and bricks” of various types. When the ratio of carbon monoxide to hydrogen of 1:1 synthesis gas for the production of a convenient fuel. And option 4:1 is much better suited for the production of plastics. The new technology allows to create many “gas blocks” of different type, which will become a new convenient raw material for the chemical industry. And also partially solve the question of atmospheric pollution.
Source — University of New South Wales