Carbon dioxide is mostly talked about in the context of global warming. Carbon dioxide can however also be used as a raw material for biodegradeable plastics called aliphatic polycarbonates.The idea itself is not new, having first been developed in 1969, but it has taken nearly four decades to make the product viable for commercial use. Now, according to the MIT Technology Review, the product is reaching the levels of maturity required for making something good of it.
According to the latest web issue of TR, "The Cornell University spinoff's technology centers on a catalyst that converts carbon dioxide into a polymer that could be used to make everyday items such as packaging, cups, and forks. The plastic, which was originally created by Cornell chemist Geoffrey Coates, is also safe and strong enough to be used in medical implants and devices."
A company called Novomer has just received a relatively big (USD 6.6 million) venture capital injection to scale up its manufacturing capacity utilizing epoxites, carbon dioxide, and a new type of metallic catalyst developed by Coates that allows the process to run in room temperatures and low pressure, conditions that are required for economic manufacturing. The new zinc-based catalyst is said to be efficient enough to make production of this new type of plastics an economically viable business.
Earlier this year (April) TR also reported that the chemists at University of California San Diego and Queen's University in Ontario have shown that it is, with the right catalyst, also at least theoretically possible to turn carbon dioxide into gasoline. The environmental benefits of either innovation would probably emerge only from very large-scale operations, but are worth studying further.
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