Research engineers have developed a new material that could capture greenhouse gas and convert it into fuel.

Scientists are constantly looking for new ways to deal with carbon dioxide, as regulation and public sentiment cause the energy industry to change its ways.

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory say their new material can bind CO2 and convert it into methanol, which can be reused as fuel.

They have named the new material a ‘copper tetramer’.

It consists of small clusters of four copper atoms each, supported on a thin film of aluminium oxide.

The arrangement lets them bind CO2 molecules to themselves, which orients the molecules in an ideal way for chemical reactions.

This happens because the material has most of its binding sites open, letting it join efficiently and strongly to CO2.

While the copper tetramer technology looks very promising for large scale capture and conversion of CO2, there are plenty of hurdles ahead.

The scientists say they still have to figure out how to make the tetramers stable, durable and in larger quantities.

The study, “Carbon dioxide conversion to methanol over size-selected Cu4 clusters at low pressures,” has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.