Sep 13, 2026 · 29 min · 8 segments
Listen to Dr Pradeep Muthy talk about converting captured carbon into commercial commoditioes and chemicals with catalysts. Produced and hosted by Ian Woolf Support Diffusion by making a…
And the idea is, yes, is to transform it into molecules that have more potential rather than just leaving the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Because if you just leave the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, of course, it will just accumulate through extensive fossil fuel consumption or the like.
And of course, if you merely capture it, you then don't really do anything with that captured carbon dioxide.
As many plants are doing, you store it, but then Of course, there could be leakage issues over time, even though that might take a while to happen.
the trouble of course is that it's just sitting in a tank or in a reservoir without really much application and so that's where utilization the term utilization becomes very important here because you're trying to actually utilize it the co2 in a way that means that you don't you can apply it and rather than just leave it sitting there doing nothing And so such fuels or chemicals you can convert that carbon dioxide into could be methane, which is useful for fuels.
Methanol, likewise, also useful as a cleaning agent or a hydrogen carrier or something.
And carbon monoxide can be used as a platform chemical to create other larger fuels and chemicals.
How is the carbon dioxide captured for you to be able to convert it into something else with your catalyst?
Well, I don't do the capture side as much, but there are materials such as amines or zeolites that can actually physically adsorb, which in other words means it sticks onto the surface of these materials.
You can use the materials that collect the carbon dioxide and then when it's full or you know reach its saturation you can sort of flush it out and then direct it towards a reactor that can perform the chemical reaction so the materials themselves that are catalysts they you could argue some case depending on how you manufacture the catalyst themselves could capture some of that carbon dioxide and then apply it, but certainly you would want to use it more for the reaction side.
So you'd need some kind of combined system that first captures the carbon dioxide, then shifts it to the catalyst.
The catalyst could contain, for example, some kind of carbon or zeolite or something that could actually capture some of that carbon dioxide that is flowing onto the catalyst and then transfer it to be active metal.
This could be nickel, it could be copper, it could be ruthenium, a wide variety of possibilities that I've researched into in the past.
Are you building structures for them to be in to do the catalysis to convert the carbon dioxide into something useful?
The catalyst themselves can employ a multitude of different possible structures, all of which have a unique ability to be able to capture and then direct the carbon dioxide towards the active metal.
When you, when you have, I think nowadays there's just so much talk about porosity, in other words, increasing the surface area.
And the idea is, yes, is to transform it into molecules that have more potential rather than just leaving the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Because if you just leave the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, of course, it will just accumulate through extensive fossil fuel consumption or the like.
And of course, if you merely capture it, you then don't really do anything with that captured carbon dioxide.
As many plants are doing, you store it, but then Of course, there could be leakage issues over time, even though that might take a while to happen.
the trouble of course is that it's just sitting in a tank or in a reservoir without really much application and so that's where utilization the term utilization becomes very important here because you're trying to actually utilize it the co2 in a way that means that you don't you can apply it and rather than just leave it sitting there doing nothing And so such fuels or chemicals you can convert that carbon dioxide into could be methane, which is useful for fuels.
Methanol, likewise, also useful as a cleaning agent or a hydrogen carrier or something.
And carbon monoxide can be used as a platform chemical to create other larger fuels and chemicals.
How is the carbon dioxide captured for you to be able to convert it into something else with your catalyst?
Well, I don't do the capture side as much, but there are materials such as amines or zeolites that can actually physically adsorb, which in other words means it sticks onto the surface of these materials.
You can use the materials that collect the carbon dioxide and then when it's full or you know reach its saturation you can sort of flush it out and then direct it towards a reactor that can perform the chemical reaction so the materials themselves that are catalysts they you could argue some case depending on how you manufacture the catalyst themselves could capture some of that carbon dioxide and then apply it, but certainly you would want to use it more for the reaction side.
So you'd need some kind of combined system that first captures the carbon dioxide, then shifts it to the catalyst.
The catalyst could contain, for example, some kind of carbon or zeolite or something that could actually capture some of that carbon dioxide that is flowing onto the catalyst and then transfer it to be active metal.
This could be nickel, it could be copper, it could be ruthenium, a wide variety of possibilities that I've researched into in the past.
Are you building structures for them to be in to do the catalysis to convert the carbon dioxide into something useful?
The catalyst themselves can employ a multitude of different possible structures, all of which have a unique ability to be able to capture and then direct the carbon dioxide towards the active metal.
When you, when you have, I think nowadays there's just so much talk about porosity, in other words, increasing the surface area.
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