Direct CO2-to-fuel conversion breakthrough

An international research team led by the University of Montpellier and University of Adelaide has developed a method to convert carbon dioxide directly from industrial flue gas into carbon monoxide without prior purification. The technique uses a specially designed organic liquid that disrupts hydrogen bonding, suppressing unwanted side reactions and enabling nearly 100% selective conversion of CO2 to CO. In tests with simulated flue gas containing 15% CO2 and 8% oxygen, the system operated for over 100 hours with high performance, consuming 30.7 gigajoules per tonne of CO produced. When coupled with a high-efficiency solar cell, it achieved a solar-to-fuel efficiency of about 5.5%, comparable to systems using purified CO2. The findings, published in Tata Communications, could make carbon capture and utilization more economical and practical for heavy industries such as steel, cement, chemicals, and alumina refining, potentially accelerating the transition to sustainable fuel and chemical production.