With the help of the precious metal ruthenium, rubber gloves are being given a new purpose in the fight against greenhouse gases.
Human-caused climate change and plastic pollution are among the most pressing global challenges. At Denmark’s Aarhus University, researchers have now developed a method that could help address both—using rubber gloves. Millions of them end up in landfills or are incinerated every year, often after just a single use. The researchers focused on nitrile gloves, which are made from a synthetic rubber derived from crude oil. In the laboratory, they succeeded in converting the gloves into a new material that can absorb CO₂ instead of releasing the greenhouse gas when burned.
Well Suited for Carbon Capture and Storage
The recycled material could be used for carbon capture and storage, or CCS—a technology that many experts believe will be unavoidable if the worst impacts of climate change are to be mitigated. In CCS, CO₂ is removed from the atmosphere or captured directly at the point where it is generated, such as in industrial facilities. The captured greenhouse gas can then be stored underground or reused as a raw material, for example in the production of chemicals or fuels.
To achieve this, the rubber gloves were shredded and then converted into amines using a ruthenium-based catalyst and hydrogen gas. These nitrogen-containing molecules can bind CO₂ and are already used in established CCS processes. In laboratory experiments, the material produced from the gloves showed the highest adsorption efficiency at around 90 degrees Celsius. By reheating the material or reducing the pressure, the bound CO₂ can be released again, allowing the recycled material to be reused multiple times.
While experimental approaches to producing amines from waste materials already exist, what is new about the work at Aarhus University is the use of nitrile as the starting material. According to the research group, they have previously succeeded in recycling other materials that were considered difficult or nearly impossible to recycle, such as polyurethane foam from mattresses and epoxy and fiberglass from wind turbines.
Following these initial laboratory successes, the researchers are now working to make the process scalable and economically viable—for example, for use in power plants.
Recycling – the potential of ruthenium: Ruthenium is a well-established catalyst used in numerous industries. In the future, the precious metal could become even more important, as research is yielding promising results for new recycling processes in the fight against global plastic pollution.
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