Good chemistry, greener planet
After a decade at the helm, Professor Troels Skrydstrup has just wound down the Carbon Dioxide Activation Center (CADIAC), which conducted research into methods of transforming CO₂ into the building blocks for the chemical industry of the future.
“We looked at ways of making chemicals that are crucial to the industry and produced a few from CO₂,” the professor explained in an interview with the DNRF.
The Center invented a method of transforming green methanol made from CO2 into important chemicals, a technique that could prove to be a significant step toward restructuring the chemical industry, which is so reliant on fossil fuels.
“The chemical industry needs to transition to sustainability. When fossil fuels run out, we will still need raw materials. Various models suggest three alternative sources: CO₂, biomass, and recycled plastic,” he added.
Watch the video in which Troels Skrydstrup talks about research into solutions for a greener future.
Getting there
CADIAC also worked on carbon capture. As Professor Skrydstrup explains, the only solution to climate change is to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere.
“There is so much of it that we need to come up with methods and materials to capture and remove it. But the amounts are so huge that it will take massive quantities of material—and that’s where plastic waste comes in.
“The next twenty years will be incredibly interesting. Plastic is cheap to manufacture, but far too little research has been done into ways of recycling it. The first steps have only just been taken.”
Recycling mattresses and textiles
CADIAC led the way in recycling mattresses and blades from wind turbines.
“We were the first scientists to work with the Danish Technological Institute on ways of making new mattresses from old foam ones, and Innovation Fund Denmark funded studies of the scalability of our model. Industry is interested, and we’re just waiting to find out if the process is scalable.
“We have also started to look at the textile industry. We only recycle 1% of textiles. Some items of clothing contain multiple fibers, including plastic ones like elastane, which makes recycling difficult. So, we have started to look at chemical solutions to remove that type of plastic,” the professor added.
Fertile ground for innovation and development
CADIAC’s research provides fertile ground for further progress and has already borne fruit. Professor Skrydstrup is continuing his work on CO₂ conversion and capture at a Novo Nordisk Foundation CO₂ Research Center. He is also working on a new center funded by the Villum Foundation, which has plans for projects on plastics and recycling.
“But we need hundreds of these centers to solve all the challenges the world faces. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. We need lots of them. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we won’t be CO₂ negative— capture more CO₂ than we emit—until 2090.
“It’s a global problem that the whole world needs to address together,” he stressed before mentioning China as a realistic partner.
“People often say that America innovates while China replicates, but it’s not true. China is involved in developing—perhaps more than anybody else. Chinese industry is also excellent at scaling up, so working with them would be very fruitful,” the professor concluded.