greenhouse gas tagged posts

Dr. Cao-Thang Dinh, left, and Dr. Md Golam Kibria (both ECE) demonstrate their new catalyst. In a paper published today in Science, their team demonstrated most efficient and stable process for converting climate-warming carbon dioxide into the building blocks for plastics, all powered using renewable electricity. Credit: Laura Pedersen

Engineering team designs most efficient and stable process for converting climate-warming CO2 into a key chemical building block. A new technology from U of T Engineering is taking a substantial step towards enabling manufacturers to create plastics out of two key ingredients: sunshine and pollution...

Researchers are generating carbon nanofibers (above) from CO2 , removing a greenhouse gas from the air to make products. Credit: Stuart Licht, Ph.D.

Finding a technology to shift carbon dioxide, the most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas, from a climate change problem to a valuable commodity has long been a dream. Now, a team of chemists have developed a technology to economically convert CO2 directly into carbon nanofibers for industrial and consumer products. “Such nanofibers are used to make strong carbon composites, such as those used in the Boeing Dreamliner, as well as in high-end sports equipment, wind turbine blades and a host of other products.”

Previously, the researchers had made fertilizer and cement without emitting CO2. Licht calls his approach “diamonds from the sky...