By: Jenna Marcus
Researchers have discovered a new method of producing diesel that reduces the amount of carbon dioxide and particle pollution released. This method can quickly be applied to industry, and may even be seen in the next decade.
Fuel production needs catalysts to initiate the chemical reactions that transform raw material into usable fuel. In the case of this diesel, two catalysts are used – a metal and a solid-state acid. As the catalysts are added to the raw material, the raw material’s molecules bounce back and forth between them, transforming a little bit every time it comes into contact with them. After enough bumps the molecules are ready to be used as diesel fuel.
For decades, scientists have assumed that the two catalysts should be as close together as possible during so that the molecules would bounce back and forth more quickly, speeding up the production process. However, Professor Martens from the Belgian University of Leuven and Professor Jong from the Dutch Utrecht University have discovered a better method.
Martens and Jong found that if the catalysts are placed a certain distance from each other, the diesel that is produced emits far less CO2 and pollutants.
“Our results are the exact opposite of what we had expected. At first, we thought that the samples had been switched or that something was wrong with our analysis,” says Professor Martens. “We repeated the experiments three times, only to arrive at the same conclusion: the current theory is wrong. There has to be a minimum distance between the functions within a catalyst. This goes against what the industry has been doing for the past 50 years.”
The researchers believe that their method can be scaled up for industrial use with relative ease; this new diesel may be at the pump in five to ten years. In addition to petroleum fuels, this new method can also be applied to renewable biomass.
