![]() This affords us a unique opportunity that we are very excited about,” said Nirala Singh, assistant professor of chemical engineering and co-investigator of the study. “The support from Keck allows us to work on the many different aspects of this reaction in a concerted way, rather than each working on the different components separately. This approach could also transform the production of compounds such as amides and amines used for chemical synthesis, pharmaceuticals and agriculture-ultimately leading to cleaner and more economical processes that increase the sustainability of food systems and improve the planet’s health. By controlling the delivery of the reactants and electricity, the team will have a unique level of control over the reaction. The catalysts will be alloys of pairs of metals, in various compositions, that will be able to react with both CO2 and NO3-.Įlectricity will help remove oxygen from the CO2 and NO3- so that they can be combined at the catalyst reaction sites. The polymers will guide the carbon dioxide, nitrate and just the right amount of hydrogen from water to the reaction sites on the catalysts. The Michigan team plans to bring about that reaction with catalyst-polymer composites. Because the bonds between the nitrogen and oxygen atoms in NO3- are less stable, it should take less energy to break them when combining NO3- with CO2. Prior attempts to electrochemically produce urea have focused on coupling CO2 and nitrogen (N2), but researchers found that the stable bond between the nitrogen atoms in N2 is hard to break, making this reaction too energy-intensive and the process unfeasible. However, the carbon dioxide and nitrate will need a new kind of catalyst and a tailored reaction environment to bring them together efficiently, and this is what the team intends to develop. The carbon capture would offset the CO2 emitted from soil when the urea is applied as a fertilizer. The process could also be more energy efficient than current processes, and can be powered with renewable electricity for net-zero emissions. “This work has the potential to create a paradigm shift in the urea production process and address sustainability.” “Directly producing urea from the co-reduction of NO3- and CO2 would remediate two harmful pollutants while producing an essential fertilizer product,” said Bryan Goldsmith, assistant professor of chemical engineering, who leads the project. The bones of a fish float in the runoff zone, from which the nitrates are harvested, while a healthy trout leaps from the clean water near the solar panel. The urea fertilizer on the corn plant ends up back in the water as nitrates. It shows nitrates captured from water and carbon dioxide from air, combining with the help of a solar panel. The proposed process is a circle with a green background. A reddish background conveys a sense of alarm. ![]() Driving away from the factory is a gray truck with hazard symbols on it. ![]() The “current process” panel shows a gray factory belching smoke and carbon dioxide molecules, annotated with “11.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year”, with methane and nitrogen molecules for inputs. The team proposes to use nitrates from industrial and agricultural waste in their process while capturing carbon dioxide from the air or from sources like smokestacks. Nitrate runoff from agriculture and industry leads to out-of-control bacteria and algae growth in aquatic ecosystems, causing dead zones and contaminating drinking water sources. This process, known as co-reduction, directly consumes carbon dioxide as well as nitrate, which is among the most prevalent wastewater pollutants in the world. This project aims to instead assemble the carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen atoms in urea by combining water, CO2 and nitrate (NO3-) with electricity. The high CO2 emissions stem from producing ammonia (NH3) as a middle step, which requires significant energy for its production. Keck Foundation, a new, more sustainable approach for producing urea will be tested at the University of Michigan.ġ2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) are emitted annually by the current process for producing urea (CH4N2O), making it one of the largest CO2 emitters in the chemical industry. The production of the fertilizer urea is one of the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the chemical industry, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
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