Solar Energy to Convert Carbon Dioxide into A Useful Fuel (still in R&D)

[jpak]

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?newsID=6694

It is the biggest contributor to climate change. Now chemists are hoping to convert carbon dioxide into a useful fuel, with a little help from the sun.

If they succeed, it will be possible to recycle the greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels. The work could also lead to a way for future Mars missions to generate fuel for their return journey from carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere.

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The researchers chemically reduced CO2 to produce eight and nine-carbon hydrocarbons using a catalyst of particles of platinum and palladium confined in carbon nanotubes. These hydrocarbons can be made into petrol and diesel. To begin with, the researchers used sunlight plus a thin film of titanium dioxide to act as a photocatalyst to split water into oxygen gas plus protons and electrons. These are then carried off separately, via a proton membrane and wire respectively, before being combined with CO2 plus the nano-catalyst to produce the hydrocarbons.

Although the nano-catalysts produced two or three times more hydrocarbons than a commercially available catalyst, the process converted only about 1 per cent of the CO2 at room temperature. Centi believes it will be possible to improve on that by using higher temperatures and a larger surface area of catalyst. It will also be necessary to boost the efficiency of the solar watersplitting, he says. With the right research, Centi believes that an efficient solar-powered reactor for converting CO2 into fuel could be available “within a decade”.

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[mom cat]

1. Mother Nature does it all the time: Read about algae fuels

Algae — like a breath mint for smokestacks
By Mark Clayton, The Christian Science Monitor
BOSTON — Isaac Berzin is a big fan of algae. The tiny, single-celled plant, he says, could transform the world's energy needs and cut global warming.

A smokestack at the Mitchell Power Plant in Moundsville, W. Va.
Charles P.Saus, AP

Overshadowed by a multibillion-dollar push into other "clean-coal" technologies, a handful of tiny companies are racing to create an even cleaner, greener process using the same slimy stuff that thrives in the world's oceans.

Enter Dr. Berzin, a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. About three years ago, while working on an experiment for growing algae on the International Space Station, he came up with the idea for using it to clean up power-plant exhaust.

If he could find the right strain of algae, he figured he could turn the nation's greenhouse-gas-belching power plants into clean-green generators with an attached algae farm next door.

"This is a big idea," Berzin says, "a really powerful idea."

More at:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-01-10-algae-powerplants_x.htm

[Crunchy Frog]

2. Did somebody just invent photosynthesis?

[mccoyn]

3. No, photosynthesis sticks to common elements.

Until photosynthesis systems (ethanol, biodiesel, algae) farms are proven on production levels there isn't any reason to discourage other attempts.