> At the meeting, Thomas Rayder, a graduate student at Boston College, reported building on the idea. He encapsulated a pair of enzymelike catalysts in a zirconium-based MOF to drive a series of reactions that convert gaseous CO2 to methanol, a liquid fuel.
> When they were unprotected by the MOFs, Rayder found, the two catalysts didn’t produce any methanol because they were quickly deactivated, likely by reacting with each other. But safely ensconced in the MOFs, they could make methanol at temperatures and pressures far below those used in existing methanol plants, offering a potentially cheaper and greener way to make the fuel.