Three year trial at Swansea University as Coca-Cola look to make bottle tops from CO2 emissions

The global drinks company who are one of the world’s biggest users of plastic – is funding a three-year trial at at the Bay Campus in Swansea as part of the firms target of net zero by 2040.

Much of its current plastic packaging is made cheaply, from fossil fuels. The aim will be, however, to capture CO2 from the air, or from factory emissions, to produce a key ingredient for plastics.

Coca-Cola’s goal is to use captured CO2 as a resource, taking it either from the air near its factories or directly from its own smoke stacks.

Prof Enrico Andreoli, an industrial chemist, said the “magic happens” in a small black electrode where an electric charge passes through a mixture of CO2 and water, producing ethylene, a key ingredient in the flexible type of plastic used in bottle tops.

“The plastic we make today releases a lot of carbon dioxide into the environment,” said the project’s principle investigator.

“We want to prove the technology in the laboratory works.

Craig Twyford, director of Coca-Cola’s venturing division for Europe and the Pacific, said the company’s promise for a 30% reduction in its carbon footprint by 2030 will mostly come from using more recycled plastics.

“From 2030 to 2040 we need to start making the more radical bets… looking at lots of different technologies.”

“If the human race starts drawing down CO2 in large quantities, what useful things can we do with it?

“We could potentially use it to carbonate our drinks. Or, we could use it – as we are with Swansea – to make some of our packaging.”

[Lead image: Swansea University]