EPFL scientists have created a high-efficiency, long-lasting catalyst that converts CO₂ into industrial chemicals, offering a promising leap toward large-scale carbon recycling.
We’ve all heard about the urgent need to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. But what if we could actually use this greenhouse gas instead of just fighting to get rid of it? Scientists are exploring an exciting approach called electrochemical CO2 conversion. This process transforms CO2 into valuable chemicals and fuels, offering a cleaner and more sustainable path forward for energy and industry.
The idea holds a lot of promise, but there’s a major hurdle: most current methods either wear out too quickly or use too much energy, making them impractical for real-world applications.
Take low-temperature CO2 conversion, for example. It usually lasts less than 100 hours and delivers energy efficiencies of under 35 percent. Higher temperatures, between 600 and 1,000 degrees Celsius, make the process more efficient, but most existing catalysts break down under those conditions or depend on expensive materials like precious metals. To move this technology from the lab to everyday use, we need a game-changing solution, one that is durable, efficient, and affordable. Ideally, it should be able to convert CO2 into something useful, like carbon monoxide, which is widely used in industrial manufacturing.
Breakthrough from EPFL
Now, a team led by Professor Xile Hu at EPFL has crafted a new type of catalyst that promises to make this high-temperature conversion more practical and cost-effective. The catalyst could accelerate the transition towards cleaner industries by converting CO2 into usable chemicals and fuels.
The researchers developed an innovative catalyst made from a cobalt-nickel (Co-Ni) alloy encapsulated within a ceramic material called Sm2O3-doped CeO2 (SDC). The encapsulation prevents the metal from agglomerating (clumping together), a common problem that reduces catalyst effectiveness. Impressively, their catalyst operates at 90% energy efficiency, 100% product selectivity, and sustains its performance over an unprecedented 2,000 hours, far surpassing existing technologies.
To create the catalyst, first-author and EPFL postdoc Wenchao Ma, used a sol-gel method, a process that mixes metal salts with organic molecules to form tiny metal clusters encased by ceramic shells. They tested different combinations of metals, discovering that a balanced mix of cobalt and nickel delivered the best performance. Unlike traditional catalysts, which quickly degrade under intense heat, the encapsulated alloy remained stable, maintaining its efficiency even after thousands of hours of continuous operation.
Industrial Implications
The results were remarkable. The new catalyst maintained an energy efficiency of 90% at 800 degrees Celsius while converting CO2 into carbon monoxide—a valuable chemical used in industrial processes—with 100% selectivity. In simpler terms, nearly all the electricity used in the reaction directly contributed to producing the desired chemical, without wasteful side reactions.
The breakthrough brings us closer to practical, cost-effective carbon recycling. Instead of releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, industries could reuse it, transforming waste gas into valuable products. This technology could help industries reduce their environmental footprint, saving both energy and money in the process.
The EPFL team’s catalyst remained stable at industrially relevant conditions for more than 2,000 hours, a milestone that dramatically reduces operating costs. Compared to existing technologies, their approach could cut overall costs by 60% to 80%, according to the researchers’ preliminary estimate.
The catalyst is a significant step towards cleaner industries. By turning CO2 into valuable products efficiently, we can envision a future where industries recycle carbon emissions as routinely as we recycle paper and plastic today. The EPFL team has filed an international patent application for the catalyst.
Reference: “Encapsulated Co–Ni alloy boosts high-temperature CO2 electroreduction” by Wenchao Ma, Jordi Morales-Vidal, Jiaming Tian, Meng-Ting Liu, Seongmin Jin, Wenhao Ren, Julian Taubmann, Christodoulos Chatzichristodoulou, Jeremy Luterbacher, Hao Ming Chen, Núria López and Xile Hu, 14 May 2025, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08978-0
Funding: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Generalitat de Catalunya, Agencia de Gestión de Ayudas Universitarias y de Investigación (AGAUR), National Science and Technology Council (Taiwan), National Taiwan University, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Innovation Fund Denmark, National Natural Science Foundation of China
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3 Comments
Why have we not figured out how to scale organic C02 scrubbers to clean the air with secondary treatment to split the oxygen off?
That tech basically exists in space operations and submarines already?
(i.e. biochemical/biomechanical catalysts and biological processes for scrubbing and converting C02 like the plankton at the bottom of the ocean use)
So they’ll use it to produce more chemicals, more metals, and more fuel. All those productions will then use more energy and produce more CO² that will then need converted back to CO then into fuel like methanol which may reduce some greenhouse gasses but not much more than gasoline but then instead releases formaldehyde and ascetic acid…
Figure out how to make a brick/concrete out of it and quit using it as an excuse to produce more industrial byproducts..