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Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material

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Re: Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material

#2
Doesn't the net CO2 in the air increase?

So you harvest CO2 to into fuel. That fuel is burned and the CO2 is released back into the air. So net difference is zero.

But to harvest the CO2 you needed to generate a high amount of heat. That's extra CO2. So net CO2 is more.

It depends on the cost of harvesting that CO2.

Re: Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material

#3

Doesn't the net CO2 in the air increase? So you harvest CO2 to into fuel. That fuel is burned and the CO2 is released back into the air. So net difference is zero. But to harvest the CO2 you needed to generate a high amount of heat. That's extra CO2. So net CO2 is more. It depends on the cost of harvesting that CO2.

You can use Solar and other renewable energy to power the conversion process. Progress is still progress.

I would much rather to pay more for net zero carbon fuel, then not do anything.

Re: Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material

#4

Doesn't the net CO2 in the air increase? So you harvest CO2 to into fuel. That fuel is burned and the CO2 is released back into the air. So net difference is zero. But to harvest the CO2 you needed to generate a high amount of heat. That's extra CO2. So net CO2 is more. It depends on the cost of harvesting that CO2.

> But to harvest the CO2 you needed to generate a high amount of heat. That's extra CO2. So net CO2 is more.

That depends on where they get their energy from.

Re: Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material

#6

Doesn't the net CO2 in the air increase? So you harvest CO2 to into fuel. That fuel is burned and the CO2 is released back into the air. So net difference is zero. But to harvest the CO2 you needed to generate a high amount of heat. That's extra CO2. So net CO2 is more. It depends on the cost of harvesting that CO2.

I couldn't fetch the article, so I'm looking at the ScienceDaily page.

It's a process to turn:

* otherwise-waste carbon dioxide into (taking electricity)

* syngas, which can be turned into

* synthetic diesel, methanol, alcohol or plastics

Plastics could be a carbon sink I guess.

Re: Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material

#7
“We used an open flame, which burns at 2000 degrees, to create nanoparticles of zinc oxide that can then be used to convert CO2, using electricity, into syngas.”

Is this a real catalyst? (That is, it doesn't get used up in the process.) Or do they have to keep making more zinc oxide clouds to keep the process going? The paper summary is unclear about the energy inputs to this process.

Costs $10 to read the paper.

Re: Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material

#8
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Re: Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material

#9
post #7

“We used an open flame, which burns at 2000 degrees, to create nanoparticles of zinc oxide that can then be used to convert CO2, using electricity, into syngas.” Is this a real catalyst? (That is, it doesn't get used up in the process.) Or do they have to keep making more zinc oxide clouds to keep the process going? The paper summary is unclear about the energy inputs to this process. Costs $10 to read the paper.

It's a real catalyst. Full paper here:

https://sci-hub.tw/10.1002/aenm.202001381

I don't think it will have industrial significance any time soon, though. Catalysts and processes for the reverse water-gas shift reaction are better developed. The hope is that electrochemical catalysts like this can combine the electrolysis process for making H2 and the syngas production step into one, with lower equipment costs. It's hard for me to believe that it will overtake better established industrial processes. It's very hard to take a maybe-better process from lab scale to industry when there's already an established pair of processes that get to the same outcome.

My prediction: electrolyzers and catalytic processes will continue to be optimized separately, and combining those modules will continue to be more predictable and affordable than all-in-one electrocatalytic approaches like this.

Re: Engineers find neat way to turn waste carbon dioxide into useful material

#10
Every time there’s a discussion about synthetic carbon fuels, there’s the same frustrating replies. I want to reply to those with one statement: the whole point is to use excess power from solar/wind. There’s always the same replies pointing out how it’s more efficient to use the power directly in EV batteries, laws of thermodynamics, and other similar things. Those completely miss the point. Solar/wind is going exponential and we have a big problem of storing excess power. Massive really massive amounts of batteries is one option. But converting that into carbon fuels that work directly in existing infrastructure and is effectively carbon neutral is a good option too. That’s where the discussion should be, not pointless arguments about efficiency of EVs.
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