"The molecular arrangement of carbon dioxide is like two people holding hands tightly. This structure makes the carbon dioxide molecule extremely chemically inert. All we have to do is force it to react with other substances under relatively mild conditions and turn it into waste. Bao. "In the eyes of Professor Gong Jinlong, School of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, how to catalyze the" lazy "carbon dioxide is the key to realizing its turning waste into treasure.
In the past 3 years, the Gong Jinlong team, with the support of the national key R & D program, has broken through the bottleneck problems of high energy consumption, low efficiency, and low value-added products faced by CO2 resources through in-depth research on the carbon dioxide chemical catalytic conversion process It has laid a scientific foundation for the large-scale promotion of its transformation and utilization technology, and the research results are at the world's leading level.
"Zero emission" conversion: the most difficult and the highest standard road
A large amount of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere every day in the world. The efficient use of resources is an important way to achieve emission reduction, and it is also a worldwide problem. All the time, the conventional carbon dioxide conversion technology used in our country requires high temperature, high pressure and catalyst, and obtaining these conditions is inseparable from the use of energy. In China's coal-dominated energy background, traditional technologies will cause additional carbon dioxide emissions.
"No new carbon dioxide can be generated during the conversion process, otherwise it will become the demolition of the east wall and the supplement of the west wall. The conversion is calculated as a general ledger, and the conversion amount is greater than the emission amount. The Golden Dragon team chose the most difficult and highest standard path from the beginning.
The difficulty of carbon dioxide conversion is that its molecular structure is extremely stable, the conversion requires the injection of high energy, and the path of carbon dioxide conversion is complex, with many products and poor purity after conversion. Therefore, the choice of conversion path and catalyst is extremely important.
The Gong Jinlong team focused on solar energy. "Solar energy is an inexhaustible source of green energy in nature." Gong Jinlong said that they thought about the photosynthesis of leaves. A leaf absorbs light energy through photosynthesis, turning carbon dioxide and water into energy-rich organic matter. At the same time release oxygen. But the energy conversion efficiency of the leaves is too low, only 0.1% -1%. "The catalyst we are going to do is like an artificial leaf whose energy conversion efficiency is one hundred times that of ordinary leaves." Using solar energy, artificial leaves efficiently convert water and carbon dioxide into carbon-containing molecules such as methanol and methane under the action of the catalyst. Can be reused as fuel.
Tens of thousands of experiments to realize the idea of ​​"artificial leaves"
To realize the idea of ​​"artificial leaves", it is necessary to establish a new type of carbon dioxide catalytic conversion reaction system and find a more efficient catalyst. However, this groundbreaking research is too cutting-edge. Recalling the original research, Gong Jinlong said with emotion: "Our research is completely from scratch."
The transition from 0 to 1 is an extremely difficult journey. First of all, there is no ready-made commercial equipment to purchase the equipment for the experiment. It is entirely up to the research team to explore and design. From the drawing design, to the selection of materials and tools, to the final hands-on installation, it is up to the scientific researchers to complete it themselves. Secondly, the choice of which catalyst is more efficient is also based on trial and error, and experiment failure has almost become the norm.
"Although I haven't counted it carefully, but it's not an exaggeration to say that we conducted tens of thousands of experiments, failed, summarized, adjusted the plan, and then conducted the experiment again. During that time, I worked in such a cycle almost every day." Gong Jinlong recalled Say.
During the research and development process, the Gong Jinlong team also faced fierce competition from their counterparts in the United States and Japan. Under this pressure and motivation, the team's scientific researchers are racing against time every day.
In the end, after more than three years of research, they realized the efficient conversion of carbon dioxide under mild conditions using green energy such as solar energy and hydrogen energy, and established a new "photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction" and "carbon dioxide hydrogenation reduction" pathway, which opened up The green conversion channel from carbon dioxide to liquid fuel and high value-added chemicals has achieved a new breakthrough in the reduction of carbon dioxide into methanol and other hydrocarbon fuels. In the conversion process, the yield of its carbon-containing products is as high as 92.6%, and the selectivity of methanol is 53.6%, reaching the world's leading level. Relevant research results were published as cover hot papers in internationally renowned journals such as "German Applied Chemistry" and "Energy and Environmental Science".
Carbon dioxide mineralization efficiency is the highest in the world
While the basic research is at the forefront, the Gong Jinlong team is also committed to the research on the practical application of carbon dioxide mineralization and transformation. Professor Gong Jinlong said humorously: "Our research can't be so cold, we must also be grounded."
This "grounding gas" research is aimed at the current economic situation of the carbon dioxide conversion process, through "ionic liquid cooperative catalytic conversion" "non-alkaline mineralization utilization" and other measures, using more efficient catalysts to prepare high additional Fine chemicals such as polycarbonate and titanium *** lay the foundation for the industrial application of carbon dioxide mineralization.
Gong Jinlong said that there are currently 20 million tons of steel-making blast furnace slag containing titanium, aluminum and other components in China every year. Their technology can efficiently recover metal elements such as titanium and aluminum while mineralizing and fixing carbon dioxide, and the high-purity titanium *** obtained in the mineralization process can be used in dye production to realize the full utilization of blast furnace slag. At present, the carbon dioxide mineralization efficiency of this technology has reached 200 kg / ton (non-alkaline ore), the highest level in the world. Today, the research team is carrying out an expanded test of processing 300 tons of titanium-containing blast furnace slag to prepare high-purity titanium ***. (Chen Xi)
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