Researchers have demonstrated a new and sustainable way to make the chemicals that are the basis of thousands of products—from plastics to cosmetics—we use every day.

Hundreds of thousands of chemicals are manufactured by the chemical industry, which transforms raw materials—usually fossil fuels—into useful end products. Due to its size and its use of fossil fuel feedstocks, the chemical industry is responsible for roughly 6% of global carbon emissions.

But researchers led by the University of Cambridge are developing new methods that could one day lead to the “de-fossilization” of this important sector.

Over the past decades, energy researchers have developed various promising solutions to limit the emission of greenhouse gases and source fuels or other chemicals more sustainably. These solutions include so-called carbon capture technologies and electrolyzers, devices that can capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) and convert it into other valuable products, such as carbon monoxide (CO), methanol (CH₃OH), methane (CH₄) and various other compounds.

Some recently introduced solutions for converting CO₂ into compounds that can be used as fuels or in industrial settings have achieved promising results. However, most of these devices only work if CO₂ is purified (i.e., separated from other gases, contaminants and impurities). This additional purification step reduces the devices’ efficiency and can increase costs associated with their deployment, preventing their large-scale implementation.

An alternative method for the capture and conversion of CO₂, known as reactive CO₂ capture, could be more efficient and scalable than conventional approaches. This method combines the capture and conversion of CO₂ in a single process, relying on compounds containing nitrogen (i.e., amine-based absorbents) to directly convert captured CO₂ into desired compounds via electrochemical reactions.