'Breakthrough' sees waste aluminium foil used to produce bio-fuel catalyst

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Ahmed Ibrahim Osman, an Early Career Researcher from Queen’s University’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and teaching assistant at South Valley University published an innovative crystallisation method, which obtains 100% pure single crystals of aluminium salts from the contaminated foil. This is the starting material for the preparation of alumina catalyst. Usually, to produce this type of alumina it would have to come from bauxite ore, which is mined in countries such as West Africa, the West Indies and Australia, causing huge environmental damage. Ahmed, who took on the project under the QUB University’s Sustainable Energy, Pioneering Research Programme, has created a solution which is much more environmentally-friendly, effective and cheaper than the commercial catalyst which is currently available on the market for the production of dimethyl ether - a bio-fuel which is regarded as the most promising of the 21st century. Ahmed says making the catalyst from aluminium foil cost about £120/kg while the commercial alumina catalyst comes in at around £305/kg. Those materials are abundant in Egypt due to the largest Aluminium Company in the Middle East, so the application of this research could be a game changer for the Energy sector in Egypt. Its unique thermal, chemical and mechanical stability means it can also be used as an absorbent, in electronic device fabrication, as a cutting tool material or as an alternative for surgical material for implants. The ground-breaking research has been published in Nature Scientific Reports. Ahmed commented: “I have always been inspired by Chemistry and I believe that catalysis especially can make the world a better place. One day I took a walk through our laboratories at Queen’s and found lots of Aluminium foil waste so I did a little digging and after speaking to my colleagues, I ran my experiment and was astonished by the ultrapure single crystals – I didn’t expect it to be 100% pure. “This breakthrough is significant as not only is the alumina more pure than its commercial counterpart, it could also reduce the amount of aluminium foil going to landfill while also sidestepping the environmental damage associated with mining bauxite.” Ahmed is hoping to continue his research into how these catalysts can be further improved and explore the opportunities for commercialisation of bio-fuel production or use the modified alumina catalyst in the catalytic converters in natural gas vehicles.

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