SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) said on Friday it will be working with a university in Singapore in a research project worth S$4.6 million ($3.4 million) over three years to convert carbon dioxide to fuels and petrochemicals.
Researchers from Shell and the National University of Singapore (NUS) will develop processes to produce ethanol and n-propanol from carbon dioxide, a byproduct from industrial processes, the two organizations said in separate statements on their websites.
Ethanol and n-propanol can be blended with gasoline to produce cleaner burning fuels or further be dehydrated to produce ethylene and propylene, basic building blocks for plastics, they said.
Current methods of converting carbon dioxide to fuels and chemicals are unable to produce the desired types of chemicals with yields that can meet industrial needs, NUS said.
The university said Shell will contribute its expertise towards scaling up catalysts and processes developed by the NUS team.
($1=1.337 Singapore dollars)