The University of Newcastle has published research that can help industry reduce their CO2 emissions. The team led by Michael North, Professor of Organic Chemistry, have developed a highly energy efficient way of converting waste carbon dioxide into cyclic carbonates. Not being scientifically minded we won’t go into the complex way this is done but here are some of the key points.
The new technology could help reduce UK CO2 emissions by around 4% per annum. This equates to some 48 million tonnes of waste CO2! The cyclic carbonates can then be used in producing solvents and biodegradeable packaging and other such products. One exciting use of the cyclic carbonates is in anti-knocking agents in petrol. These make petrol burn better and therefore increase fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions.
Overall it appears that this new technology could have great implications in the reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The technology however still has be trialled outside of the lab so fingers crossed it works!
