Nano-Spike Catalysts Convert Carbon Dioxide Directly Into Ethanol
October 20th, 2016Via: PhysOrg:
In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol. Their finding, which involves nanofabrication and catalysis science, was serendipitous.
“We discovered somewhat by accident that this material worked,” said ORNL’s Adam Rondinone, lead author of the team’s study published in ChemistrySelect. “We were trying to study the first step of a proposed reaction when we realized that the catalyst was doing the entire reaction on its own.”
The team used a catalyst made of carbon, copper and nitrogen and applied voltage to trigger a complicated chemical reaction that essentially reverses the combustion process. With the help of the nanotechnology-based catalyst which contains multiple reaction sites, the solution of carbon dioxide dissolved in water turned into ethanol with a yield of 63 percent. Typically, this type of electrochemical reaction results in a mix of several different products in small amounts.
“We’re taking carbon dioxide, a waste product of combustion, and we’re pushing that combustion reaction backwards with very high selectivity to a useful fuel,” Rondinone said. “Ethanol was a surprise—it’s extremely difficult to go straight from carbon dioxide to ethanol with a single catalyst.”
Research Credit: dale
I thought this was interesting, even bizarre. The concept that “green house” gas could be sequestered to make, fuel. I have no guesses or expertise on the validity of the concept, cost effective or otherwise. But even if it’s not feasible, is the idea relevant in any way?
Scientists have been doing this type of thing for many years, but with far lower yields.
The Navy wants to be able to essentially make infinite jet fuel. They have the nuclear power plants to run the process. They have also been making jet fuel out of sea water.
As far as I know, this nano-spike thing is FAR more efficient than anything that has been publicly acknowledged so far.
Here are a couple of previous links:
https://www.cryptogon.com/?p=49280
https://www.cryptogon.com/?p=43758
https://www.cryptogon.com/?p=31861