Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology have refined a rhenium-based catalyst which works with triethanolamine to reduce low concentrations of CO₂ from flue gases. Decades of work on the catalyst has culminated in the new method, which is capable of reducing carbon dioxide even when concentrations are only 1% by volume in a gas mixture, making it especially interesting for industries such as fossil fuel-fired power generation, cement and steel making, and other CO₂ intensive processes. Most of the CO₂ is reduced to CO, a gas that is more easily used as a feedstock for chemical processes. The research has been published in Chemical Science.