How can we practically tackle climate change whilst still ensuring the supply of energy? This is the essential question motivating Dr George Fulham.
New Fellow hopes to “reverse combustion” and create fuel from atmospheric carbon dioxide
Posted:
25 Mar 2026
Wind turbines in the rolling countryside hills.
Dr Fulham, who joined the College as a Research Fellow in January, believes a potential solution is to begin pulling carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere (known as direct air capture), together with improving the integration of renewable energy into the chemical industry.
Atmospheric CO2 can be transformed into a variety of chemicals and fuels. One such product is methanol, which is among the most versatile and widely used chemicals worldwide, with applications as a shipping fuel or as a precursor to making jet fuel. But the process to go from CO2 to methanol requires substantial energy, and Dr Fulham’s work looks at real-world solutions to make that as renewable as possible:
“Energy from the combustion of fossil fuels has underpinned society for decades, but it undoubtedly threatens our future. Now, we are left trying to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and in effect ‘reverse combustion’ by putting electricity in with the aim of getting useful fuels out. This clearly raises numerous practical and systemic challenges.”
Dr Fulham adds that “moving to renewable energy would change the cost model to one with upfront capital costs for building wind or solar power, albeit with lower running costs and massively reduced emissions. However, this comes at the cost of reliability: people would like to use a reliable, decarbonised power-grid, but that is very unlikely to be realised anytime soon, so we are looking at how to bring renewable power and chemical production together.”
His new research suggests the way forward is generating renewable power on-site and integrating with chemical production. He is also examining how catalysts (materials that help kick-start chemical reactions) will increase process efficiency, and how these catalysts respond to flexible operations in major chemical processes such as turning captured CO2 into methanol.
On top of that, he is examining how plasma chemistry can be used to directly couple renewable power with CO2 conversion, reducing the amount of heat required to drive the reactions. He describes how “the experiments involve trying to replicate and control the conditions of a lightning strike to form an energetic plasma of ionised gas and reactive species.”
“Already, there have been promising results showing plasma environments achieving large conversions of CO2 at ambient temperature. However, lots of the scientific fundamentals remain unclear – especially when combining plasma with catalyst materials.”
All this would, it’s hoped, create a “circular” fuel production economy, taking atmospheric CO2 in to make useful products, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and supporting implementation of renewable power:
“Of course, there are numerous hurdles still to overcome, many of which are not scientific limitations. However, I hope applied research such as mine allows us to be clear-eyed in meeting these challenges.”
Dr Fulham’s position as Gott Research Fellow in Chemical Engineering means he will spend three years at Trinity Hall.
He says he wanted to become a Fellow because: “I enjoy the convivial atmosphere and engaging with people working across different disciplines. I’ve already had conversations with other Fellows that can hopefully lead to future ideas and projects.”
And what does a climate change-fighting academic do in their spare time? Produce records and DJ, of course. Growing up on the outskirts of London, he spent a lot of nights in clubs around the city and developed a keen ear for electronic music. And he says: “with my dad having spent years buying records, my fate was sealed really.”
This all led the then future Dr Fulham to running a record label as well as travelling around Europe for DJ gigs: things he still pursues today… when he’s not in the lab.
Read recent research papers related to George’s research below: