Scientists at the Korea Energy Research Institute have developed a method to decompose tetrafluoroethane gas (HFC-134a) using a catalyst made from a byproduct of aluminum production. The work was published in the scientific journal broadcasting Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (JIEC).
Tetrafluoroethane is used as a refrigerant in air conditioners and refrigerators. It is known for its strong greenhouse effect, which is 1.3 thousand times stronger than carbon dioxide.
The team used a compound derived from red mud, a waste product produced by processing bauxite ores. The mud contains oxides of iron, aluminum, silicon and other elements that give it its characteristic color.
When one ton of aluminum is produced, approximately 1-1.5 tons of red mud is produced as a by-product. Today, most of the red mud is disposed of by burying it in landfills or dumping it into lakes. Red mud creates significant soil and water pollution problems due to its high alkalinity and heavy metal content.
Red mud has a porous structure with a large surface area per unit mass and high thermal stability, allowing the reactants to flow efficiently and preventing physical and chemical degradation of the composition. The catalyst developed by the research team demonstrated excellent refrigerant degradation performance, maintaining a high degradation rate of over 99% for 100 hours.
The authors of the innovation also noted that the substance can be produced at a rate of kilograms per hour on a laboratory scale using simple drying and grinding processes, which makes it suitable for full-scale mass production.
Earlier scientists was created an ultra-thin graphene membrane for capturing greenhouse gases.
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Source: Gazeta
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