Researchers discover a way to potentially reduce CO2 emissions and decrease the need for chlorine to produce ethylene oxide — ...

The discovery was six years in the making. Sykes and Montemore first discussed exploring selective oxidation reactions in 2018. They focused on ethylene oxide production, which converts ethylene ...

The ethylene oxide production process emits millions of tons of CO 2 into the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change. The process also currently requires chlorine, which is toxic.

The current industrial process for producing ethylene oxide typically generates two molecules of carbon dioxide per ethylene oxide molecule. Adding chlorine improves this ratio to about two molecules ...