Testing Carbon Dioxide as a Manufacturing Material

June 17, 2010 – Vol.15 No.13

TESTING CARBON DIOXIDE AS A MANUFACTURING MATERIAL.
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

If only we could do what trees do. Trees take carbon dioxide out of the air and, under the power of sunlight, combine it with water to make cellulose while releasing excess oxygen for us to breathe. Nice of those trees to provide us with fresh air. Give them a hug.

While a tree is alive and standing it can store or sequester carbon dioxide for many decades. Even when cut down for wood, parts of the tree that can be processed into lumber and building materials will continue to store carbon. Wooden components of buildings, such as 2 x 4’s and plywood, will be storing carbon as long as the building stands, which can be 100 years or more. Wood used in furniture will last as long as the chair, table or chest of drawers. Wood made into high quality furniture can eventually become fine antiques storing carbon for a century. Buying good furniture and saving it for your grand kids is helping to save the planet by keeping that carbon locked-up instead of warming the planet.

So if by some manmade process carbon dioxide could be taken out of the air, or perhaps out of the exhaust of a power plant, and used to make a products that have long service lives, then carbon dioxide would be stored or sequestered and have value, even a price.

Building material products made in part with waste carbon dioxide would be an obvious choice to sequester that carbon for the longest period of time. As above, buildings are, supposedly, built to last.

Fortunately, the idea of using carbon dioxide as a key component in the manufacture of building products is already underway.

In Germany, researchers from Bayer MaterialScience and Bayer Technology Services are working together with RWE Power (Germany’s largest power generator) and academic partner RWTH Aachen University on the use of carbon dioxide as a raw material in manufacturing. The project, with EUR 4.5 million ($ 5.6 million) in investment from the German government, is called “Dream Production” project. “Dream,” I guess, because carbon dioxide would become a useful material (no longer a waste product) as well as helping to save energy while it’s being sequestered.

The project will involve building a pilot production plant that uses carbon dioxide from one of RWE’s coal-fired power plants to manufacture polycarbonate polyols that will be processed into polyurethanes. Polyurethanes can be made into building insulation, saving energy, as well as into lightweight auto parts, also helping to save energy through reduced fuel consumption.

Key to the project is getting carbon dioxide to act as a catalyst, that is, to increase the rate of a chemical reaction while being chemically bonded to other materials. Until recently carbon dioxide hasn’t done well as a chemical agent. Now recent laboratory tests involving Bayer scientists have shown that “dream reactions” are possible and carbon dioxide could feasibly become a useful material in manufacturing.

The goal of the project is to scale up a laboratory experiment to an industrial process. Readers should be cautioned, however. Often what works in a laboratory often doesn’t work on a factory floor.

The possibilities are ironic: A harmful byproduct of energy consumption could be used cut energy consumption.

Links:

Bayer News : From waste product to raw material – manufacturing quality polymer materials based on CO2.