Home

Translate

en English af Afrikaans sq Albanian ar Arabic hy Armenian az Azerbaijani eu Basque be Belarusian bg Bulgarian ca Catalan zh-CN Chinese (Simplified) zh-TW Chinese (Traditional) hr Croatian cs Czech da Danish nl Dutch et Estonian tl Filipino fi Finnish fr French gl Galician ka Georgian de German el Greek ht Haitian Creole iw Hebrew hi Hindi hu Hungarian is Icelandic id Indonesian ga Irish it Italian ja Japanese ko Korean lv Latvian lt Lithuanian mk Macedonian ms Malay mt Maltese no Norwegian fa Persian pl Polish pt Portuguese ro Romanian ru Russian sr Serbian sk Slovak sl Slovenian es Spanish sw Swahili sv Swedish th Thai tr Turkish uk Ukrainian ur Urdu vi Vietnamese cy Welsh yi Yiddish
Open Translation

HOUSTON, TX: A new process developed by the Rice University lab of chemist James Tour can turn bulk quantities of just about any carbon source – i.e. a banana peel - into valuable graphene flakes at a fraction of the current price of up to US$200,000 a ton.

Graphene is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice that is 200 times stronger than steel. It is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity and when combined with other elements, including gases and metals, can produce batteries, transistors, computer chips, energy generation, supercapacitors, DNA sequencing, water filters, antennas, touchscreens and solar cells.

Tour says the “flash graphene” process using a custom-designed reactor can convert a ton of coal, food waste or plastic into graphene for a fraction of the cost used by other bulk methods.

“This is a big deal. The world throws out 30 – 40 percent of all food, because it goes bad, and plastic waste is of worldwide concern. We've already proven that any solid carbon-based matter, including mixed plastic waste and rubber tires, can be turned into graphene.”

Tour hopes to produce a kilo a day of flash graphene within two years in a project to convert American coal funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. “This could provide an outlet for coal in large scale by converting it inexpensively into a much-higher-value building material,” he said.

Flash graphene is made in 10 milliseconds by heating carbon-containing materials to about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Food and plastic waste, petroleum coke, coal, wood clippings and biochar are prime candidates, according to Tour. “With the present commercial price of graphene being US$67,000 - US$200,000 per ton, the prospects for this process look superb.”

As little as 0.1 percent of flash graphene in the cement used to bind concrete could lessen its environmental impact by a third. Cement production emits as much as 8.0 percent of human-made CO2 every year.

“By strengthening concrete with graphene, we could use less concrete for building, and it would cost less to manufacture and less to transport,” he said. “Essentially, we’re trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane that waste food would have emitted in landfills. We are converting those carbons into graphene and adding that graphene to concrete, thereby lowering the amount of carbon dioxide generated in concrete manufacture. It’s a win-win environmental scenario using graphene.”

“With our method, that carbon becomes fixed,” he added. “It will not enter the air again.”

Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of computer science and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University.
Story Type: News

Vote for my Story

Our Rating: 9% - 1 votes

1000 Characters left


Latest News

December 01, 2023
People Editor

Fossil fuel subsidies in 82 countries rose to US$1.5 trillion in 2022.

DUBAI: Governments in 82 economies subsidised fossil fuels at a cost of US1.5 trillion in 2022 – up from US$769.5 billion the previous year. Data from the OECD and IEA indicate the offset was due to exceptionally high energy prices prompted “in part” by…
December 01, 2023
Transportation Editor

Major shipping lines call on UN regulator to ban fossil fuel

DUBAI: The heads of major European-based shipping lines have called for an end to fossil-fuel powered newbuilds and urged the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to accelerate the industry's transition to green fuels. The CEOs of A.P. Moller – Maersk,…
November 29, 2023
People Editor

COP 28 sponsors ranked for ethics

DUBAI, UAE: Spendwell, an independent information company enabling individuals to make ethical choices when buying goods or services from corporations, has ranked the 24 official sponsors of COP 28 in Dubai, UAE: The report, based on independently verifiable…
November 29, 2023
Biodiversity Editor

Third U.N. Plastics treaty talks end without deal

NAIROBI: The third session of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, or INC-3, ended without any concrete language or decisions on combatting plastic pollution. The delegates couldn’t even agree on what to do prior to…
November 28, 2023
Emissions Editor

You can’t have it both ways IEA tells oil and gas companies

PARIS: The International Energy Agency (IEA) says the oil and gas sector - including COP 28 president and simultaneously CEO of the Abu Dhabi Oil Company (ADNOC) Sultan Al Jaber - is faced with taking responsibility for a worsening climate crisis or…
November 27, 2023
Energy Editor

Maersk sources ‘green’ fuel from China

COPENHAGEN: Chinese energy developer Goldwind is to supply A.P. Moller - Maersk with 500,000 tonnes annually of ‘green’ bio-methanol and e-methanol. First volumes are expected in 2026 utilising wind energy to produce the new fuel from a facility in Hinggan…
November 20, 2023
Emissions Editor

UN warns governments: cut emissions now or face global warming of 2.5˚C-2.9°C

NEW YORK/NAIROBI: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says the lack of government action to reduce global warming is leading to a 2.5˚C-2.9°C rise in temperatures above pre-industrial levels this century. The latest UN Emissions Gap Report provides an annual,…
November 17, 2023
Energy Editor

No sign of decline in fossil fuel expansion

BERLIN, Germany: Urgewald, a non-profit coal research group, and more than 50 NGO partners has published the second update of the Global Oil & Gas Exit List https://gogel.org/ The public database provides a breakdown of the activities of 1,623 companies…
November 17, 2023
Emissions Editor

The hottest 12 months in recorded history

PRINCETON, NJ: In a prelude to COP28, a report by Climate Central scientists estimate that the global average temperature between November 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023 was 1.32°C above the pre-industrial baseline – the hottest 12 months in recorded history.…
November 16, 2023
Transportation Editor

COVID-19 lessons for managing climate change

WASHINGTON, DC: According to the U.S. government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment, mandated by Congress to determine climate change impacts, risks and responses, the initial cost of COVID-19 to the U.S. from lost economic output and reduced health was…
November 15, 2023
Transportation Editor

DHL turns green

BONN: DHL Supply Chain is introducing a green transport policy to provide its stakeholder guidance on the most sustainable power alternative based on availability, infrastructure and cost-per-market. Over the next three years the DHL division will invest €200…
November 13, 2023
Energy Editor

Cambridge University develops sustainable energy alternative to fossil fuels

CAMBRIDGE, UK: Cambridge University researchers have developed floating ‘artificial leaves’ that can generate clean fuels from sunlight and water as efficiently as plant leaves. Published in the journal Nature, the study shows it is possible to develop…

We are using cookies

By continuing you are agreeing to our use of cookies

I understand