From greenhouse gas to green energy

University of Waterloo scientists capture carbon and turn it into sustainable, clean fuel Scientists at the University of Waterloo have achieved a historic breakthrough in transforming the carbon dioxide emissions driving climate change into clean fuels. The process, which has been refined over a two-year period, could play a significant role to help decarbonize industrial emissions and boost both the environment and national economies. "This technology will help countries achieve the Paris Agreement's net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050. Nobody has achieved such high production of these hydrocarbon by-products before this," said project leader Dr. Yimin Wu, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at Waterloo. "This new process will give more economic benefits to companies and industries, making carbon capture more economicly feasible to adopt." This process was a result of the National Research Council (NRC) Canada's Materials For Clean Fuels Challenge program, a multi-year program aimed at developing new technologies to decarbonize Canada's energy sectors. Wu's team collaborated with the NRC, which provided a $160,000 grant. The Waterloo engineers had three goals: to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions - typically from industrial and transportation sources - that cause climate change, to make decarbonization financially feasible and to incorporate renewable electricity to develop new materials for zero-emission transportation fuels and chemical feedstocks for industry.