Argonne National Lab Breakthrough Turns Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol
10th August 2020
According to a press release from ANL, researchers at the lab, working with partners at Northern Illinois University, have discovered a new electrocatalyst that converts carbon dioxide and water into ethanol with very high energy efficiency, high selectivity for the desired final product, and low cost. Ethanol is a particularly desirable commodity because it is an ingredient in nearly all US gasoline and is widely used as an intermediate product in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries.
This could be a game-changer. Ethanol isn’t as energy-dense as petro-fuel, but if they can get the price down low enough people will use it.