05/09/2024 by Mark
US-based oil major Chevron has detailed how it is researching ways to convert captured carbon into renewable fuels.
Organic materials like cooking oil and soybean oil have long been used as feedstock for biofuels. As plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while they grow, this offsets the carbon emissions from the fuel being consumed. A downside of biofuels, however, is the land needed to cultivate the feedstock.
As an alternative, Chevron, which also makes the Texaco lubricant range, says it is researching catalysts for converting captured carbon into renewable fuels. A catalyst essentially triggers a chemical reaction, and one or more of these can enable the necessary transformation. Scientists are therefore looking at modifying existing catalysts and developing novel ones to convert captured carbon into low-carbon fuels, like methanol and sustainable aviation fuels.
Chevron’s programme manager for renewable fuels, Michelle Young, said:
“We have been successfully making renewable fuels from crops like soybean oil and waste feedstocks like animal fats and cooking oil. But breakthrough technologies can create renewable fuels from new sources like carbon dioxide and biomass, such as algae and landfill waste.”
Carbon dioxide has great potential as a feedstock because of its abundance in the atmosphere. Chevron claims, for example, that it could be combined with solar power and green hydrogen to produce methane, the main component of natural gas. This could then complement the renewable natural gas produced at landfills and dairies and used to power transportation.
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