Enabling Technology Project

E11 Development of Highly Efficient Carbon-Circulation Chemical System

Outline of the area

The carbon cycle consists of biogeochemical exchanges among the biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. Many projects that aim to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by using plants to fix carbon are underway. Compared to the atmospheric carbon dioxide, however, human-emitted carbon dioxide is usually localized and concentrated. This situation can be utilized for constructing a carbon cycle subsystem that is more efficient than physical or plant-dependent carbon cycles. ALCA has been developing the technology to efficiently separate and recover relatively high concentrations of carbon dioxide emitted from power plants or ironworks, the catalysts for the low-energy conversion of the carbon dioxide to methanol, the reaction systems therefor, etc. This project aims to construct a highly efficient chemical system for a carbon cycle based on technologies of this kind. Our specific goal is the development of practical applications that construct modular plants for converting carbon dioxide emitted from existing thermal power plants to useful chemicals. To use carbon dioxide as resources, technology for the mass-production of hydrogen, a reducing agent, without emitting carbon dioxide must be developed. However, because the development of such technology is a long-term subject, this project can be combined with existing technologies for hydrogen production, enabling an early development of the important elemental technologies for the efficient and large-scale conversion of carbon dioxide to raw materials. Furthermore, highly efficient processing technologies to recover carbon species from various sources and fix them in the form of raw materials for chemicals are to be developed to contribute to the realization of a low carbon society.

※ All projects have been completed in 2021.