Carbon Dioxide in Conversion of Biomass Into Biofuel

[ishaneferguson]

http://biomassenergyjournal.com/researchers-discover-use-for-carbon-dioxide-in-conversion-of-biomass-into-biofuel/ ">Carbon Dioxide in Conversion of Biomass Into Biofuel

Carbon Dioxide in Conversion of Biomass Into Biofuel

Researchers at Columbia University have successfully discovered a beneficial use for carbon dioxide in the conversion of organic materials, such as grass and bark, into fuel. Their findings show that if utilized on a broad scale, their technique could help significantly reduce overall carbon emissions, both from the use of carbon dioxide in biofuel production and the creation of a more energy-efficient production process. The study appears in the website of the Journal of Environmental Science & Technology.

To make the gasification process more efficient, researchers led by Marco Castaldi, at Columbia University, tried varying the atmosphere in the gasifier. They found that, by adding CO2 to the steam atmosphere of a gasifier, significantly more of the biomass or coal was turned into useful syngas.

Millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide could be prevented from entering the atmosphere following the discovery of a way to turn coal, grass or municipal waste more efficiently into clean fuels. Photo credit: John Giles/PA Wire

The technique has a double benefit for the environment: it provides a use for CO2 that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere and, after the hydrogen is siphoned off from the syngas, the remaining carbon monoxide can be buried safely underground.

----SNIP----

Sort of pokes around the edges about what to do with the CO2

[NNadir]

1. You mean they discovered the Boudouard reaction?

Boudouard died in 1923.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudouard_reaction