On October 7th the TV programme Sense Ficció (channel TV3) broadcasted the documentary “Inversió de Futur”. ICIQ group leader Atsushi Urakawa appeared in this documentary to talk about his research on CO2 conversion into methanol.

It is well worth watching.

Please follow this link to see his participation (minute 41).

Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities and responsible for the climate change. CO₂ emissions have increased drastically since the Industrial Revolution in and this trend has not change. Therefore, devising a strategy to mitigate CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere has become one of the most important challenges of this century.

Scientists bet for the CO₂ capture, fixation and conversion into less polluting and valuable products for the chemical industry as the most promising solution to mitigate climate change. For the first time the Urakawa group has optimised the conversion process of CO₂ into methanol achieving close-to-full one-pass conversion.

The method was published as Priority Communication in Journal of Catalysis and it was highlighted in Science.

Full coverage on Urakawa’s achievement here.

ICIQ video on his research