Environment

Cambridge reactor converts plastic waste and CO2 into useful chemicals

Cambridge's new solar reactor can convert carbon dioxide from air and flue gas, as well as plastic waste, into useful chemicals
Ariffin Mohamad Annuar
Cambridge's new solar reactor can convert carbon dioxide from air and flue gas, as well as plastic waste, into useful chemicals
Ariffin Mohamad Annuar

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and plastic waste are two of the most pressing environmental problems facing the world today, but a device designed by Cambridge scientists may help tackle both at once. The team has demonstrated a new version of their solar reactor, which uses sunlight to convert CO2 and plastic bottles into useful chemicals.

The Cambridge team unveiled a version of their solar reactor just six months ago. It was made up of two chambers, one that processed CO2 and the other plastic waste, with the whole thing powered by a perovskite solar cell. That version, however, only worked with concentrated CO2 from a cylinder, which is useful as a proof of concept but doesn’t necessarily apply to real-world settings.

So for the new version, the team tweaked it to work with CO2 from flue gas or even just ambient air. First the air is pumped through an alkaline solution, which traps only the CO2 while allowing the other gases, such as oxygen and nitrogen, to escape as bubbles. This concentrated CO2 can then be processed, with the help of the other chamber.

“The plastic component is an important trick to this system,” said Dr Motiar Rahaman, co-first author of the study. “Capturing and using CO2 from the air makes the chemistry more difficult. But, if we add plastic waste to the system, the plastic donates electrons to the CO2. The plastic breaks down to glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry, and the CO2 is converted into syngas, which is a simple fuel.”

The team says this technology could go a long way towards tackling both of these major environmental hazards, and eventually could help pave the way towards a fossil-fuel-free future.

“We’re not just interested in decarbonization, but de-fossilization – we need to completely eliminate fossil fuels in order to create a truly circular economy,” said Professor Erwin Reisner, lead author of the study. “In the medium term, this technology could help reduce carbon emissions by capturing them from industry and turning them into something useful, but ultimately, we need to cut fossil fuels out of the equation entirely and capture CO2 from the air.”

The research was published in the journal Joule.

Source: Cambridge University

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6 comments
guzmanchinky
Such great news to hear so many companies coming up with these innovative solutions. Even if most don't work, it's all pushing in the right direction...
jerryd
There are far better ways to process plastics into useful chemicals like simply heating to 700F will offgas very useful chemicals with far wider applications. For a crude version look up Plastics to Oil on youtube where they make gasoline, diesel, gasses to run the system though sun could be used for it.
joez
If it's really like it sounds and the total equation for energy and or carbon isn't haywire, this sounds really good. Also, our current (apparent) level of arrogance around oil and gas seems to be that we *have* the ultimate use for these energy dense resources and that is to burn them, pave roads, and make plastics (and more). What if our future selves looks back and thinks what an incredible waste of an amazingly valuable resource. We *burned* the stuff but now we can ______ with it. If only we'd made our SUV's a ton or two lighter, what a difference.
Nevermind. Trolls will label me a naive idealist and deride me being anti prosperity, anti this that and whatever. Depends how you define those things.
Ranscapture
We need no plastics period, find a way to use plant fibers until we have a way to breakdown plastics wherever they are. It’s in our bodies, plants, animals, under Antarctica, in permafrost. We’re screwed as long as we have these plastics.
laughingatyou
It sounds like Cambridge owes patent infringement money to every single soda using technology on earth. From soft drinks to whip cream and beyond co2 has been a constant in chemical processes for 150 years. for six years they have used co2, and heat in the processes of heating and injection molding plastic to make plastic stiffer.

OOOooohh wait! I get it cambridge is trying to claim this as a man made global warming fight tool! yeah not so much.
Lamar Havard
If fossil fuels are eliminated, where are the 700 gallons of oil and grease each of the giant wind turbines use for lubrication, and must be changed yearly, going to come from?