Taking the pressure off catalytic carbon dioxide conversion

Every year we release around 37 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. More than half will never be absorbed by plants or the sea, and only 1% gets recycled into useful chemicals and fuels. Now, researchers in India have come up with a new catalytic process that could be a game-changer in turning carbon dioxide into our main carbon feedstock.¹ They have discovered a new way to transform carbon dioxide into formate that works at atmospheric pressure and without needing hydrogen gas.