Advances in carbon capture and conversion technology

Overview

Updated May 26

For decades, carbon capture has faced a fundamental problem: systems designed to grab CO2 from industrial exhaust typically require a pure, concentrated stream of the gas to function. Real-world flue gas—the exhaust from power plants and factories—is a messy cocktail of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace pollutants. Most conversion technologies simply cannot handle it.

A team at South Korea's KENTECH has demonstrated an electrode that captures and converts diluted CO2 in a single step. It produces formic acid directly from simulated industrial exhaust containing just 15% CO2. The three-layer electrode performed where competing systems failed entirely—and even worked at atmospheric CO2 concentrations around 400 parts per million.

The advance transforms the economics: instead of paying to separate CO2 before converting it, industrial emitters could produce a $700-million-per-year commodity chemical directly from their smokestacks.

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Key Indicators

40%

Efficiency Improvement

The new electrode outperformed existing carbon-converting electrodes in pure CO2 tests

15%

CO2 in Test Gas

The electrode functioned in simulated flue gas, where competing systems produced negligible output

400 ppm

Atmospheric Operation

The system captured and converted CO2 at current ambient air concentrations

$692M

Global Formic Acid Market

Annual market size projected for 2025, growing at 4.6% annually through 2032

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People Involved

Wonyong Choi

Distinguished Professor and Director, Institute for Environmental and Climate Technology at KENTECH

Active researcher; named Highly Cited Researcher for seventh consecutive year (2019-2025)

Donglai Pan

Lead Author, KENTECH Research Team

Active researcher

Organizations Involved

Korea Institute of Energy Technology (KENTECH)

Research University

Primary research institution for this breakthrough

South Korea's first university dedicated entirely to energy research, established to accelerate the country's transition to carbon neutrality.

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Scientific Publisher and Professional Organization

Published research in ACS Energy Letters; issued press release highlighting significance

The world's largest scientific society, which publishes peer-reviewed chemistry journals and selected this research for public communication.

Timeline

January 1870 January 2026

11 events Latest: January 29th, 2026 · 7 months ago Showing 8 of 11

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January 2026
KENTECH Electrode Converts Diluted CO2 in Single Step
Latest Research

Researchers published a three-layer electrode design that captures CO2 from simulated industrial exhaust and converts it directly to formic acid—functioning where existing systems fail entirely.
January 29th, 2026
November 2025
UNIST System Cuts CO2 Conversion Energy by 75%
Research

Korean researchers at UNIST unveiled an electrochemical system that converts CO2 to formic acid while reducing energy consumption by nearly 75% and tripling production rates compared to existing methods.
November 1st, 2025
June 2025
Norway Launches World's Largest Industrial Carbon Capture Operation
Industry Milestone

Norway began full-scale operations of the world's largest industrial carbon capture facility, including capture from a cement plant—one of the hardest industrial sectors to decarbonize.
June 1st, 2025
November 2023
America's First Commercial Direct Air Capture Facility Opens
Industry Milestone

Heirloom opened a facility in Tracy, California capable of capturing 1,000 tonnes of CO2 annually and storing it permanently in concrete—the first U.S. plant to sell carbon removal credits.
November 9th, 2023
NREL Demonstrates Scalable CO2-to-Formic Acid Architecture
Research

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory published a membrane electrode assembly design achieving stable, high-selectivity formic acid production using commercially available components.
November 1st, 2023
September 2021
Orca Plant Begins Large-Scale Direct Air Capture with Storage
Industry Milestone

Climeworks launched Orca in Iceland, the first facility to both capture CO2 from air and permanently store it underground, with capacity of 4,000 tonnes per year.
September 8th, 2021
May 2017
Climeworks Opens World's First Commercial Direct Air Capture Plant
Industry Milestone

Swiss company Climeworks launched a facility in Hinwil capturing 900 tonnes of CO2 per year from ambient air, proving direct air capture technology could work at commercial scale.
May 1st, 2017
January 2012
Stanford Research Links Tin Oxide to CO2 Conversion Efficiency
Research

Stanford researchers demonstrated that tin oxide layers on electrodes dramatically improve CO2-to-formic acid conversion, establishing the catalyst foundation used in subsequent breakthroughs.
January 1st, 2012
September 1996
Sleipner Becomes World's First Industrial CCS Project
Industry Milestone

Norway's Sleipner gas field began injecting CO2 into a saline aquifer beneath the North Sea—the first commercial carbon capture and storage project designed for emissions abatement rather than oil recovery.
September 15th, 1996
January 1972
First Large-Scale CO2 Pipeline in Texas
Infrastructure

Natural gas processing plants in West Texas began supplying CO2 through the first large-scale pipeline for enhanced oil recovery, demonstrating industrial-scale carbon handling.
January 1st, 1972
January 1870
First Electrochemical CO2 Reduction Demonstrated
Scientific Milestone

French chemist J. Royer first reported reducing carbon dioxide to formic acid using a zinc anode, establishing the fundamental chemistry that researchers still build upon today.
January 1st, 1870

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Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

1909-1913

Haber-Bosch Process Commercialization (1913)

German chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch developed a method to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen at industrial scale. The process required high pressures and temperatures that seemed impractical until Bosch engineered equipment capable of sustained operation. Within decades, synthetic fertilizers transformed global agriculture.

Then

BASF built the first commercial plant in 1913, producing 30 tonnes of ammonia daily. The process enabled Germany to produce explosives during World War I despite being cut off from natural nitrate sources.

Now

The Haber-Bosch process now produces fertilizer supporting roughly half of global food production. It demonstrated how industrial chemistry can transform atmospheric gases into foundational commodities.

Why this matters now

Like Haber-Bosch converted atmospheric nitrogen into useful chemicals, CO2 conversion technology aims to transform waste emissions into valuable products. Both required solving engineering challenges that initially seemed insurmountable at industrial scale.

September 1996 - Present

Sleipner CCS Project (1996)

Norway's Sleipner gas field began injecting CO2 separated from natural gas production into a sandstone formation beneath the North Sea. The project was motivated by Norway's 1991 carbon tax, which made storage cheaper than venting. Over 23 million tonnes of CO2 have been stored through a single well.

Then

Proved that large-scale CO2 injection into geological formations was technically feasible and that stored CO2 behaved predictably underground.

Now

Became the global reference case for carbon storage, informing regulations and providing the monitoring data that subsequent projects rely upon. However, it also showed that carbon capture remained limited to facilities with concentrated CO2 streams—the dilution problem the KENTECH research addresses.

Why this matters now

Sleipner demonstrated storage works, but required separating CO2 first. The KENTECH electrode potentially eliminates that separation step, addressing the economic barrier that has limited capture technology deployment for three decades.

2008-2024

Solar Photovoltaic Cost Collapse (2008-2024)

Solar panel costs fell from roughly $4 per watt in 2008 to under $0.20 per watt by 2024—a 95% decline driven by manufacturing scale, incremental improvements, and competition. Technology that seemed economically marginal became the cheapest source of electricity in most of the world.

Then

Early government subsidies in Germany and feed-in tariffs in multiple countries created initial market demand that drove manufacturing scale.

Now

Solar became cost-competitive without subsidies, deployment accelerated exponentially, and the technology reshaped energy planning worldwide. Electricity costs fell low enough to enable electrification of previously fossil-dependent processes.

Why this matters now

Electrochemical CO2 conversion currently faces the same economic challenge solar faced in 2008—technically proven but too expensive to compete. NREL analysis suggests cost parity is achievable at renewable electricity prices of 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, a threshold approaching in favorable locations.