A new research article has just been published from a collaboration of ACES' Dr. Alan McCue and Dr. Inês Graça from the school of engineering, showing a way to turn carbon dioxide into methanol or formic acid without the use of hydrogen gas.
The researchers aim in this study was to develop a catalytic process that utilises CO2 via hydrogenation into formic acid or methanol but crucially, does not use hydrogen gas as the hydrogenation agent (which would normally be derived from a fossil fuel). Instead, they used glycerol as a hydrogen transfer agent to generate hydrogen in-situ. In the process the glycerol is converted in lactic acid (and other things!). Lactic acid can then be used to make biodegradable polylactic acid. This is demonstrated by the graphical abstract shown here.