Newly-Created Diesel Lowers Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Scientists may have discovered a way to lower carbon dioxide emissions. They've created a much cleaner diesel that produces far less CO2.

The production of fuel involves the use of catalysts. These substances trigger the chemical reactions that convert raw material into fuel. In the case of diesel, small catalyst granules are added to the raw material to sufficiently change the molecules of the raw material to produce usable fuel.

Catalysts can have one or more chemical functions. The catalyst that was used for this particular study had two, represented by two different materials: a metal (platinum) and a solid-state acid. During the production process for diesel, the molecules bounce to and fro between the metal and the acid. Each time a molecule comes into contact with one of the materials, it changes a little bit. At the end of the process, the molecules are ready to be used for diesel fuel.

The assumption has always been that the metal and the solid-state acid in the catalyst should be as close together as possible. This would speed up the production process by helping the molecules bounce to and fro more quickly. Now, though, researchers have found that this is incorrect.

"Our results are the exact opposite of what we had expected," said Johan Martens, one of the researchers, in a news release. "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 new method can optimize several molecules in diesel, and could cause it to emit fewer CO2 molecules into the atmosphere.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

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