KIST Develops Carbon Dioxide-based Ethylene Manufacturing Technology

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced on March 4 that its research team led by Dr. Oh Hyung-suk, Hwang Yoon-jung and Lee Woong-hee developed an echinoid-like copper catalyst capable of efficiently producing a large amount of ethylene in an electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion system.

According to the team, the catalyst has the shape of irregularly placed needles and the activity of the catalyst is enhanced at the sharp parts of the needles. “With this catalyst, ethylene generation can be strengthened even at a voltage lower than those of existing copper catalysts,” it said, adding, “We already confirmed that the catalyst is capable of improving the volume of ethylene production by at least 50 percent, and we already confirmed the possibility of its commercial use by developing a mass production system in which batteries using carbon dioxide conversion technology are stacked.”

The team analyzed the chemical properties of the catalyst by various in-situ/operand analyses and found that the basic substance in the catalyst causes increases in copper hydroxide and copper oxide components and an increase in carbon dioxide conversion efficiency.

“This means that higher hydroxide and oxide ratios in the reaction are a key to higher ethylene production efficiency and this fact can suggest a direction of catalyst design in future researches,” the team explained. Details of the research are available in the latest edition of the Nano Energy journal.