Chinese-led team’s carbon dioxide conversion system hailed as ‘milestone’ in harnessing No 1 greenhouse gas

Wuhan-based team announces carbon dioxide electrolysis system able to operate continuously for at least 5,000 hours, far longer than any known device

Feat by researchers in China and New Zealand may be ‘milestone towards industrial use’, says lead author of study published in the journal Nature

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Conversion systems to harness carbon dioxide, the No 1 cause of global warming, have thus far been unviable outside the laboratory. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 2:37pm, 18 Feb 2024Updated: 3:41pm, 18 Feb 2024

A Chinese-led team may have found an answer to a decades-old quest for scientists – how to convert carbon dioxide into valuable chemical products while also tackling climate change.

Conversion systems devised to harness the greenhouse gas – the No 1 cause of global warming – had so far struggled to operate for any length of time, making them unviable outside the laboratory.

But researchers at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Wuhan have announced a breakthrough, with an electrolysis system that can convert carbon into formic acid with an efficiency of more than 93 per cent.

More importantly, the system can operate continuously for at least 5,000 hours, far longer than any other known device under research.

The feat could mark “a milestone towards industrial use”, according to Xia Baoyu, study lead and professor at the HUST school of chemistry and chemical engineering.

The findings of the study, a collaborative effort by researchers from institutions including HUST, the University of Science and Technology of China and the University of Auckland, were published in the journal Nature on January 31.