Turning sunlight and greenhouse gases into useful industrial chemicals is the goal of this project, which uses cheap magnesium nanoparticles to capture and convert CO₂ and methane at much lower temperatures than current methods. The problem is that dry reforming of methane—a process that turns CO₂ and methane into syngas, a building block for fuels and chemicals—requires extremely high temperatures, making it energy-intensive and expensive. This project aims to replace that heat with sunlight, using magnesium’s natural ability to absorb solar energy and drive chemical reactions. Magnesium is abundant, cheap, and recently discovered to be a highly effective plasmonic metal for this purpose. If successful, this research could lead to a low-cost, low-emission way to turn greenhouse gases from industrial and agricultural waste into valuable products like hydrogen and carbon monoxide. That would directly reduce emissions while creating a commercially viable feedstock for manufacturing chemicals, fuels, and plastics—systems that quietly underpin modern supply chains and energy grids. The work is still at the proof-of-concept stage, but it targets a practical, scalable innovation rather than fundamental science alone.
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Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) account for over 90% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalent, making them driving factors for global warming and consequently for shaping current environmental policies. To meet environmental targets, society needs to concurrently emit less and capture more greenhouse gases. Dry reforming of methane (DRM), where CO2 and CH4 are converted into H2 and CO (syngas), is a commercially attractive way to produce syngas from abundant feedstock including industrial and agricultural waste while capturing harmful greenhouse gases. However, in the case of DRM, conventional methods relying on thermally driven catalysis suffer from high energy requirements which render the reaction costly and environmentally unsustainable. Here, we propose to use a sunlight-assisted approach to drive the reaction at substantially lower temperatures. Mg has been recently discovered as a sustainable plasmonic metal with the best match to the solar spectrum. Our recent work pioneered catalytically active plasmonic nanoparticles based on cheap and earth-abundant Mg and demonstrated their excellent light-enhanced catalytic performance, making Mg an ideal candidate for application in sunlight-assisted low-temperature DRM. The objective of this proposal is to explore the pathway from ground-breaking research on Mg-based catalytically active plasmonic nanoparticles towards commercially viable innovation in low temperature gas-phase transformation of stable molecules, using DRM as the model reaction. To achieve this ambitious goal, this project will advance the technical understanding and capabilities that will underpin the target market, develop our business strategy, and forge links with industrial partners. The outcomes will set the path towards commercial scale, sustainable, low-cost and low-emission conversion of greenhouse gases into high value-added chemical building blocks.
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