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Scientists Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 into Ethanol

popularmechanics.com

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Re: Scientists Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 into Ethanol

#21

Post by lucozade »

VT_Drew wrote: post #4

>potentially creating a new technology to help avert climate change >The reaction turns CO2 into ethanol, which could in turn be used to power generators and vehicles. I am no scientist, my question is this: wouldn't it be a zero sum game at best? You are taking C02 out of the atmosphere, turning it into fuel, which then is used in C02 emitting engines.

If it were truly zero sum that could help solve the CO2 increase problem.

But it can be better than that. If you had a zero sum technology that evened out fluctuations in other renewables then you're in the realms of CO2 reduction.

You also may have the possibility of more practical sequestration than CO2 though I can think of a few pitfalls with ethanol lakes, especially around Spring Break time.

Re: Scientists Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 into Ethanol

#23

Post by Retric »

harshreality wrote: post #5

> This process has several advantages when compared to other methods of converting CO2 into fuel. The reaction uses common materials like copper and carbon, and it converts the CO2 into ethanol, which is already widely used as a fuel. > Perhaps most importantly, it works at room temperature, which means that it can be started and stopped easily and with little energy cost. This means that this conversion process coul…

Efficiency can't be very good because you need to burn ethanol limiting things to ~20-40%. Ethanol is great because it's stable and portable. So, it's just a question of cost.

Re: Scientists Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 into Ethanol

#24

Post by NickM »

VT_Drew wrote: post #4

>potentially creating a new technology to help avert climate change >The reaction turns CO2 into ethanol, which could in turn be used to power generators and vehicles. I am no scientist, my question is this: wouldn't it be a zero sum game at best? You are taking C02 out of the atmosphere, turning it into fuel, which then is used in C02 emitting engines.

Yes it would. But if we can switch from a losing game to a zero sum game, that could still help prevent more climate change in the future.

Right now, the best solution in most cases is probably renewables and batteries. But this could be a useful solution for something like air travel, where batteries are currently too big and heavy to allow for a good zero-carbon approach.

Re: Scientists Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 into Ethanol

#25

Post by [deleted] »

seren wrote: post #15
harshreality wrote: post #5

> This process has several advantages when compared to other methods of converting CO2 into fuel. The reaction uses common materials like copper and carbon, and it converts the CO2 into ethanol, which is already widely used as a fuel. > Perhaps most importantly, it works at room temperature, which means that it can be started and stopped easily and with little energy cost. This means that this conversion process coul…

The abstract of the article includes : >Herein we report a common element, nanostructured catalyst for the direct electrochemical conversion of CO2 to ethanol with high Faradaic efficiency (63 % at −1.2 V vs RHE) and high selectivity (84 %) that operates in water and at ambient temperature and pressure. I am not exactly sure how to understand the 63% efficiency but I assume that this is the rate of conversion from el…

[deleted]

Re: Scientists Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 into Ethanol

#26

Post by acveilleux »

maga wrote: post #12

>The catalyst’s novelty lies in its nanoscale structure, consisting of copper nanoparticles embedded in carbon spikes. This nano-texturing approach avoids the use of expensive or rare metals such as platinum that limit the economic viability of many catalysts. How about large scale production of the catalyst? Do we have any idea of how to produce efficiently a "nanoscale structure consisting of copper nanoparticles e…

No idea about this material in specific but a lot of nanoscale stuff is manufactured using photo lithography, basically the same way we make micro conductors since it's a process we understand well and we can scale (just ask Intel.)

It sounds like this material would have good tolerance for minor imperfections (unlike IC) so yield could be really good.

Re: Scientists Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 into Ethanol

#27

Post by T-hawk »

harshreality wrote: post #5

> This process has several advantages when compared to other methods of converting CO2 into fuel. The reaction uses common materials like copper and carbon, and it converts the CO2 into ethanol, which is already widely used as a fuel. > Perhaps most importantly, it works at room temperature, which means that it can be started and stopped easily and with little energy cost. This means that this conversion process coul…

Popular Mechanics isn't a science journal. It's the dead-tree version of clickbait.

Re: Scientists Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 into Ethanol

#28

Post by pjc50 »

british_india wrote: post #2

This strikes me as a Hail Mary play by the fossil fuel industry to make us think--for a little more profit for them--that it's okay to burn carbon. I don't buy it.

There isn't actually anything wrong with burning carbon fuels that are derived from atmospheric carbon - it's a net neutral.

Re: Scientists Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 into Ethanol

#30

Post by lallysingh »

VT_Drew wrote: post #4

>potentially creating a new technology to help avert climate change >The reaction turns CO2 into ethanol, which could in turn be used to power generators and vehicles. I am no scientist, my question is this: wouldn't it be a zero sum game at best? You are taking C02 out of the atmosphere, turning it into fuel, which then is used in C02 emitting engines.

You can convert ethanol into hydrogen (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360319907...), and use that as an (essentially, almost) emission-free fuel.
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