New catalyst for capture and conversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide

Principal investigator is Karl Johnson, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor in the Swanson School's Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering. Postdoctoral associate Jingyun Ye is lead author. The article "Catalytic Hydrogenation of CO₂ to Methanol in a Lewis Pair Functionalized MOF" is featured on the cover of Catalysis Science & Technology (vol. 6, no. 24) and builds upon Dr. Johnson's previous research that identified the two main factors for determining the optimal catalyst for turning atmospheric CO₂ into liquid fuel. The research was conducted using computational resources at the University's Center for Simulation and Modeling.

"Capture and conversion of CO₂ to methanol has the potential to solve two problems at once - reducing net carbon dioxide emissions while generating cleaner fuels," Dr. Johnson explained. "Currently, however, it is a complex and expensive process that is not economically feasible. Because of this, we wanted to simplify the catalytic process as much as possible to create a sustainable and cost-effective method for converting CO₂ to fuel - essentially to reduce the number of steps involved from several to one."

Johnson and Ye focused on computationally designing a catalyst capable of producing methanol from CO₂ and H₂ utilizing metal organic frameworks (MOFs), which potentially provide pathway for a single-process unit for carbon capture and conversion. The MOFs could dramatically reduce the cost of carbon capture and conversion, bringing the potential of CO₂ as a viable feedstock for fuels closer to reality.

"Methanol synthesis has been extensively studied because methanol can work in existing systems such as engines and fuel cells, and can be easily transported and stored. Methanol is also a starting point for producing many other useful chemicals," Dr. Johnson said. "This new MOF catalyst could provide the key to close the carbon loop and generate fuel from CO₂, analogously to how a plant converts carbon dioxide to hydrocarbons."