BY MARCY DE LUNA

In January 2024, Rice partnered with Woodside Energy, Australia’s largest oil and gas developer, to create the Woodside-Rice Decarbonization Accelerator, a project dedicated to advancing new strategies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The five-year, $12.5 million initiative focuses on transforming carbon dioxide and methane into practical industrial products using innovative cold plasma technology, with the goal of bringing these solutions to market within the next few years.

The accelerator celebrated its first anniversary in January with a Rice-hosted event in Houston to showcase the project’s advancements: It’s been busy developing novel ways to convert carbon-based emissions into valuable products, including batteries, transistors and other technology essential for the energy sector. Unlike traditional carbon-reduction techniques that often require energy-intensive heating processes, this initiative employs cold plasma — a nonthermal approach that allows chemical reactions to occur at room temperature, maximizing energy efficiency and enabling easier scalability.

“Our partnership with Woodside Energy has propelled us into a new frontier of materials science, enabling us to manipulate materials at the molecular level to unlock new possibilities using plasma chemistry,” said Paul Cherukuri, vice president for innovation and chief innovation officer at Rice. “This collaboration has been instrumental in establishing this groundbreaking capability in the U.S.”

Rice’s campus is now home to a world-class plasma chemistry facility equipped with 10 plasma reactors for developing various potential materials applications based on Woodside’s investments. Using this technology, researchers have already made headway in refining cold plasma technology and adapting it for creating new uses.

“We’re using nonthermal plasma to convert carbon-based molecules without the high energy costs typical of heating processes,” said Aditya Mohite, faculty director for the Rice Engineering Initiative for Energy Transition and Sustainability.

The approach has enabled the university’s lab to bring its technology closer to the market, emphasizing the scaling of the technology for widespread application. Beyond reducing emissions, plasma technology has potential uses in steelmaking, recovery of critical minerals from waste streams and feedstocks, water purification and other advanced manufacturing processes.

“The Woodside-Rice Decarbonization Accelerator represents a bold new direction in research methodology,” Cherukuri said. “This approach delivers rapid, actionable insights, unlocking immediate potential for industry impact.”