Gallium offers greenhouse gas solution

Engineers from UNSW have helped to discover a cheap new way to capture and convert CO2 greenhouse emissions using liquid metal. In a global collaboration, researchers have shown how liquid gallium can be used to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and a high-value solid carbon product that can later be used in batteries, or construction and manufacturing. A team from the School of Chemical Engineering, led by Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh, worked in collaboration with researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), North Carolina State University, RMIT, University of Melbourne, Queensland University of Technology, and the Australian Synchrotron (ANSTO). Their findings have been published in the Advanced Materials journal and paper author Junma Tang said the group saw very strong industrial applications. "This technology offers an unprecedented process for capturing and converting CO2 at an exceptionally competitive cost,” he said. “The applications could be in cars to convert polluting exhaust gases, or even at a much larger scale at industrial sites where CO2 emissions could be immediately captured and processed using this technology. “We have already scaled this system up to two-and-a-half litres dimensions, which can deal with around 0.1 litre of CO2 per minute. And we’ve tested that running continuously for a whole month and the efficiency of the system did not degrade.” Some members of the UNSW research team who helped prove liquid gallium can be used to break down carbon dioxide gas. Back row: Jianbo Tang, Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh. Front row: Zhenbang Cao, Junma Tang, Claudia A. Echeverria. The newly discovered process dissolves captured CO2 gas into a solvent around nanoparticles of gallium, which exist in liquid state above 30°C. The reactor also contains nano-sized solid silver rods that are the key to generating the triboelectrochemical reactions that take place once mechanical energy (e.g. stirring/mixing) is introduced. In their paper, the research team show a 92 per cent efficiency in converting a tonne of CO2 as described, using just 230 kWh of energy. They estimate this equates to a cost of around $100 per tonne of CO2. In order to commercialise the research, a spin-out company called LM Plus has been established. It is looking to raise funds to build a larger size proof-of-concept for this system to work within a 40-foot container –the size of a truck trailer.

Gallium offers greenhouse gas solution

Industry Queensland

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