Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research has pledged €2.2m ($2.9m) to a project that will explore the economical and ecological use of carbon dioxide on an industrial scale.
The project, being conducted by the BASF-supported Catalysis Research Laboratory, hopes to achieve this through the production of sodium acrylate based on carbon dioxide and ethene.
The research is being carried out with the cooperation of scientists at Technischen Universitaet Muenchen and the University of Stuttgart, both in Germany.
BASF and hte AG have earmarked another €1.7m ($2.2m) for the project.
Dr Michael Limbach, the project's overall coordinator, said that the research "enables the search for optimum catalysts and process conditions for this as yet unknown reaction to continue on a team with leading global specialists".
