New process can transform urban CO2 

pollution into a resource

By creating a solid product, this process keeps the carbon dioxide, a climate
menace, from escaping back into the air

Earth’s warming climate has been

behind many recent bouts of
extreme weather, from wildfires
and floods to droughts and storms.
One contributor to that warming is
a growing buildup in Earth’s atmosphere of carbon dioxide, or CO 2. Technologies
exist to pull this gas from the air or to trap it before it gets released. Storing that
captured CO2, however, has proven a challenge. Now one Australian research
team offers to solve this problem by “mining” that CO2 to produce solid carbon.
One benefit: There’s no risk of that carbon later escaping into the air. What’s more,
the carbon extracted from that gas can be used to make all types of products, from
construction materials to batteries.

A metallic innovation
In the past, researchers have tried pumping waste CO 2 deep into the Earth. But
there’s been a worry that something — perhaps an earthquake, or just a bad seal
— might one day release all of that pent-up gas.
Researchers at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology decided to
investigate another idea. Torben Daeneke and Ken Chiang are chemical
engineers. Daeneke’s lab works with molten metals — meaning ones that are
liquid. Chiang works with catalysts. These are materials that speed up chemical
reactions. Daeneke and Chiang began to wonder whether a liquid metal might
serve as a catalyst to break down CO 2. The two teamed up with graduate student
Karma Zuraiqi to find out.