Few people have heard of the chemical ethylene oxide, but all of us have used products that rely on it for their production, from antifreeze and plastics to textiles and disinfectants. It is what’s known as a platform chemical — one that is the basis for many other chemicals — and it’s worth about $40 billion per year on the global market. But the ethylene oxide production process emits millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually, contributing to climate change, and the curre...
