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Turning CO2 into Fuels I Recycling CO2 into Petrol I Coverting CO2 to Energy I Green Freedom

Turning CO2 into Fuels

Carbon science had just announced a technological breakthrough that is capable of transforming CO2 emissions into a usable fuel. They use a biocatalytic process to convert CO2 into basic building blocks of most fuels used to drive. This technology would help make the cycle of burning fossil fuels into the creation of CO2 a continuous loop, which will allow us to use this CO2, and make it usable fuel again. This means that fossil fuels will become a renewable resource.


Recycling CO2 into Petrol

At the Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico they are beginning to test a prototype, which will use solar energy to drive a chemical reaction that will split carbon dioxide molecules to get carbon monoxide. This method was first used to split water into hydrogen, and oxygen. This version would split CO2 into CO and Oxygen. From here they would use the products to synthesize a liquid hydrocarbon fuel, such as methanol or petrol.
Splitting the stable carbon dioxide molecule is a tough endeavor, so most people are talking of just burying the CO2 underground. The team that is leading this thinks that they can learn to use sunshine to turn CO2 to petrol. A complete demonstration of this system should be done in about three to five years. They hope they will perfect this CO2 splitting process soon. The Sandia reactor, which is what they will use to split the CO2, consists of rotating rings, made of a cobalt-doped ferrite ceramic. The system works by heating up the CO2 to about 1500 Celsius, and driving off the oxygen gas, then the reduced material (FeO) rotates into a second chamber containing carbon dioxide, then to turn back to Fe3O4; it takes the oxygen off the CO2 molecule, leaving just CO. This is similar to the cycle used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The final products should be about 4 times the size of the beer keg sized prototype, and will be able to work entirely off solar energy. The final system will be called the “Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator” (CR5).

Converting CO2 into Energy

Clifford Kubiak, and Aaron Santhrum, have began work on a revolutionary idea, that if perfected would in a sense kill two birds with one stone. Their idea would generate a hydrocarbon fuel, while decreasing the current CO2 in the atmosphere. Their working prototype does this by turning solar energy into electrical energy. This electrical energy would be used to power a two layer catalyst, which would then split the carbon dioxide, and the oxygen. The CO could then be easily turned into a hydrocarbon fuel such as methanol, and the oxygen could either be sold or released into the atmosphere. Also, Carbon Monoxide is used in a lot of industrial items, which will make this a very profitable and helpful venture.

Harvest Fuel from the Air with Green Freedom

This idea is one of the more promising, and practical ways, to turn CO2, to O2, and CO2. This process, could be adapted to an existing cooling tower, from a nuclear power plant, and also, would incorporate carbon capture equipment within the tower, so there is no need for an additional building. The way that project Green Freedom works, is by taking CO2 gas that is collected from the Carbon capture equipment, and then through an electrochemical process, is turned to CO, and O2.