Oxford: new process for carbon capture and storage

Licensing opportunity | Development opportunity

Chemists Dermot O’Hare and Andrew Ashley at Oxford University have developed a new process for capturing and storing carbon dioxide, which operates under mild conditions and converts carbon dioxide to methanol, a useful chemical and fuel.

Isis Innovation, the technology transfer arm of the university has patented the technology and is working with the inventors to put in place a strategy for commercial development.

Nearly a third of the world’s energy consumption and 36 per cent of CO2 emissions come from industry. “The Oxford technique offers a cheaper and more robust process for removing waste CO2 before it enters the atmosphere,” said O’Hare. “We expect this to be attractive to industry because of a number of key aspects.”

The process works at low temperatures and pressures that are easily achievable in most industrial environments without added equipment and costs. It does not require expensive and toxic transition metal catalysts and converts CO2 to methanol without producing undesirable side-products such as carbon monoxide or methane.

“Current technology is not selective for methanol and therefore not carbon efficient. Side products of other carbon capture technologies such as carbon monoxide and methane can also be just as undesirable as CO2,” noted O’Hare.

The reaction is not poisoned by carbon monoxide, which is a frequent component of industrial flue gases. Methanol, the end product of the carbon capture process, is widely used as a solvent and also as a fuel.

O’Hare’s group are currently working on further development of the technology to make the process suitable for industry. Isis Innovation welcomes contact from industrial partners with experience in commercialisation of catalytic processes.