Carbon dioxide to methanol

February 19th, 2024

We aim to convert CO2 and water into green methane and methanol under visible light conditions through a photocatalytic pathway.

Project lead

Dr Yunxia Yang, Yunxia.yang@csiro.au

Lead researchers

Dr Yunxia Yang

Mr Daksh Shah

Prof. Adam Lee

Prof. Karen Wilson

Challenge

In recent years, enormous efforts have been devoted to promoting renewable energy and reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) in order to decarbonise the society. However, the efficient utilisation of solar energy and reduction of CO2 is still challenging because of energy conversion efficiency and sluggish CO2 conversion kinetics.

Among the various CO2 conversion technologies, photocatalytic CO2 conversion to hydrocarbon fuels has received increasing attention. One of the ongoing and obvious issues with photo-activated reactions is the necessity to permit light access to the catalytic material.  Typically, this has been a problem overlooked by materials scientists and catalyst chemists who instead focus on deriving the best from the material by different means.

This project aims to convert CO2 and water into green methane and methanol under visible light conditions through a photocatalytic pathway.

What we are doing

The main focus of the PhD work is to synthesise a highly efficient catalyst that works under light conditions to convert CO2 to methane and methanol. We aim to further optimise the materials for photocatalytic CO2 hydrogenation to methane and methanol, investigate how to enhance photon delivery into the bulk materials, and implement ideas into device development, aiming to produce the potential IP space in a new generation of solar platform technology.

Two diagrams showing how photocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol works. The diagram on the left shows how the cell could operate in situ, and the diagram on the right is the lab setup.

Outcomes to date

  • A high throughput photocatalytic testing facility has been designed and fabricated
  • A series of materials suitable for the purpose of the project had been synthesised and screened using the above facility.
  • Daksh the PhD student has passed the third milestone examination and is now wrapping up the thesis
  • The findings have been presented at three conferences.

Lessons learned

Solely to drive the photocatalytic process to convert the CO2 to fuels by light is quite challenging. Additional energy needs to be incorporated into the process to further help to reduce the energy barrier to activate the process.

Project finish date

April 2024

Relevant project publications

  1. TiO2/CoAl LDH nanocomposites for CO2 photoreduction, RACI Brisbane national congress, Brisbane, 2022. – poster
  2. TiO2/CoAl LDH nanocomposites for CO2 photoreduction, RACI R&D Topics 2022, RMIT University, Melbourne, 2022. – poster
  3. TiO2/CoAl LDH nanocomposites for CO2 photoreduction, International Symposium on Green Transformation of Carbon Dioxide (ISGTCO2), Brisbane, 2023. – oral
  4. Zhao, J., Y. Wang, H. Arandiyan, A.M. D’Angelo, A. Seeber, Daksh
  5.  Shah, R.A. Caruso, I.S. Cole, Y. Yang, K. Wilson, R. Lippi, and A.F. Lee, Impact of doping ZrO2 with Sn on CO2 hydrogenation over dispersed Ru. Materials Today Chemistry, 2023. 32: p. 101665.