Engineering professor receives major Department of Energy grants

Climate-conscious consumers often take steps to curb their emissions of greenhouse gases. For example, you might drive a hybrid car to reduce your use of fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during combustion.

These approaches reduce the amount of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere. Some scientists are also working on ways to subtract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The goal is to capture the greenhouse gas and transform it into another substance altogether. Sound like magic? It’s not — it’s chemistry.

One of the leaders in this field of carbon capture and utilization is Feng Jiao, Robert Grasselli Development Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware.

“We are working on turning carbon dioxide, which is considered a bad gas, and using it as a carbon source to produce the chemicals we use for every day,” said Jiao, who is also the director of UD’s Center for Catalytic Science and Technology, a research center that has pioneered multidisciplinary research in the scientific and engineering principles of catalysis.

Jiao recently received two grants from the Department of Energy (DOE) to advance technologies for carbon capture and utilization through catalysis, the use of substances to speed the rate of chemical reactions.

Read the full story from University of Delaware here.