Recently, the renowned international catalysis expert, Academician Fanli Chun of the Japan Academy of Engineering (currently the founding director of the Low-Carbon Energy Conversion Center at Toyama University in Japan) and his team have developed a technology for producing butadiene rubber tires using carbon dioxide, announcing the birth of a new model for the utilization of greenhouse gases.

However, this is just the beginning. Under this utilization model, it may give rise to new technological routes for producing plastics, diamonds, clothing, bread, and other items using carbon dioxide in the future, which may even cover all aspects of clothing, food, housing, and transportation.

Based on the butadiene rubber produced by this new technology, the research team has already cooperated with Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. to use it for the practical production of racing tires.

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In the future, the produced tires will be equipped with racing cars, allowing racing drivers to participate in the Paris-Dakar Desert Rally and the 24-hour endurance challenge in Nürburgring, Germany. The research team will also continue to optimize this technology based on the user experience of racing drivers.

In fact, no matter how traditional fuel vehicles are updated and replaced by new energy vehicles such as energy storage and fuel cells, tires will always be an irreplaceable key functional unit for land transportation, and their usage will not be affected by the adjustment and transformation of the energy structure.The research team in question is utilizing green, low-carbon, and even zero-carbon or negative-carbon technological approaches to prepare butadiene rubber tires. This allows the tire production to break away from an over-reliance on traditional fossil raw materials, holding dual significance for carbon reduction and the development of green production processes.

As a sustainable recycling technology, it is ultimately expected to achieve industrial application by the end of 2029. In addition to being used for tire production, this technology will also attract other industries that have a demand for butadiene rubber, thereby becoming an ideal technological choice for numerous industries.

It is well-known that carbon dioxide is the main component of greenhouse gases, with the global annual emissions exceeding 3.5 billion tons, leading to a series of environmental and ecological issues such as climate change, sea level rise, and ocean acidification.

In response to these issues, countries around the world have formulated corresponding policies, and China has also proposed the ambitious strategic goal of "carbon peak by 2030, carbon neutrality by 2060." Achieving the "dual carbon" goals requires simultaneous progress in carbon reduction and carbon utilization.

On one hand, it is necessary to transform and upgrade the energy structure, replacing traditional high-carbon-emitting and increasingly scarce fossil fuels with new types of renewable energy.On the other hand, it is necessary to capture, utilize, or store the inevitable emissions of carbon dioxide, which is known as CCU (Carbon Capture, Utilization, carbon capture and utilization) or CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage, carbon capture, utilization and storage).

This study focuses on the second aspect. The reason is that carbon dioxide is not only a greenhouse gas but also a widely available and inexpensive carbon source.

This allows the team of Academician Chun Fanli to combine their own chemical and chemical engineering background knowledge to design efficient catalysts and new reaction routes to convert it into liquid fuels and various high-value chemicals.

There are various pathways for the conversion of carbon dioxide, such as electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, plasma catalysis, etc., and this research group aims at the thermal catalytic carbon dioxide hydrogenation technology route with higher conversion efficiency, higher target product yield, and greater industrial application potential.

In recent years, there have been numerous research reports on the production of liquid fuels and chemicals such as aromatics and olefins from hydrogenation of carbon dioxide. This team has also done a lot of work.Under the "dual carbon" context, Academician Chun Fanli has perceived that the resource utilization of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is very likely to be the next opportunity, which will drive a massive industrial technological innovation and capital influx.

Chun Fanli has nearly 40 years of experience in the research of low-carbon small molecule resource utilization, and his rich research experience allows the research team he leads to seamlessly connect with the research on the resource utilization of carbon dioxide.

Previously, they had developed a new catalytic system to realize the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to produce ethanol, and the related paper had been published a long time ago.

At that time, this was considered to be a very forward-looking research achievement, and many external laboratories were following their work. Subsequently, Academician Chun Fanli led the team to continue to challenge unknown fields, successively conquering the technology of producing butadiene from ethanol and the technology of producing rubber from butadiene polymerization, and opened up the most critical technical route for the production of carbon dioxide butadiene rubber tires.

Of course, this process is also inseparable from the support of enterprises, and the application perspective from the industry always reminds them to do research on the resource utilization of carbon dioxide that can be implemented and has benefits.Ultimately, through the aforementioned approach, they achieved their original intention: the utilization of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide through resourceful transformation from chemicals to products.

In general, they have focused more on the method of hydrogenating carbon dioxide to synthesize products of greater value and more significant challenges.

For instance, when the research on the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to synthesize mixed aromatics was in full swing, they took into account the extremely high cost of the separation process of mixed aromatics and proposed and developed an alternative route for the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to synthesize para-xylene.

Currently, this technological route is undergoing process scaling, and it is expected to build a demonstration and application plant at the ten-thousand-ton level in the future.

The carbon dioxide-based zero-carbon/negative-carbon butadiene rubber tire technology, which is highlighted this time, is also an innovative and distinctive research outcome.Currently, the main focus of CO2 hydrogenation for resource utilization is on liquid fuels or high-value chemicals. However, this team has directly converted carbon dioxide into products that can be used immediately.

This new method of utilizing greenhouse gases may inspire researchers to develop new pathways for the resource utilization of carbon dioxide, opening a window for those currently trapped in the dilemma of thinking about carbon reduction and utilization.

Recently, the related paper was published in Chem (IF 23.5) with the title "Carbon-neutral butadiene rubber from CO2."

Professor Wang Kangzhou from Ningxia University is the first author, Professor Wang Yang from China University of Petroleum (East China), Professor Tadashi Nakaji-Hirabayashi from Toyama University in Japan, and Academician Chun Fanli are the co-corresponding authors.

Subsequently, Academician Chun Fanli's team will continue to focus on the research direction of carbon dioxide resource utilization. In addition to developing new technical routes, they also pay attention to cooperation with the industry.Currently, the research team, based on the achievements of preparing aromatics and ethanol from hydrogenation of carbon dioxide, is collaborating with energy enterprises for the pilot scale-up of the process.

It is worth noting that Wang Kangzhou, the first author of this paper, has returned to China and joined the School of Materials and New Energy of Ningxia University. He is currently mainly engaged in the design and application of new energy catalyst materials, as well as the catalysis and transformation of low-carbon resources.

Wang Yang, the co-corresponding author of this paper, has also returned to China and joined the School of New Energy of China University of Petroleum (East China). He is currently mainly engaged in the development of carbon-based catalytic materials and their application in the catalytic transformation of syngas, carbon dioxide, natural gas or shale gas.

DeepTech interviewed Wang Yang in person, and he said that in this research, under the leadership of Academician Chun Fanli, he was mainly responsible for the first stage of the research on the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to produce ethanol.

Wang Yang said: "I still remember going to the laboratory to collect data under the stars and the moon. Now, when I recall the experimental routine of guarding the gas chromatograph printer and watching the signal peaks, it is very beautiful."He continued, "Focus and concentration are the most precious scientific qualities I have gained at Toyama University, and they have always influenced me. Perhaps following hot topics to do fashionable research can bring you high-level papers and citations in the short term, but doing pioneering work is the best way to have an industry impact, which is also the direction that my current team and I are persistently striving for."