Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a stable catalyst that can convert carbon dioxide to fuel while using only a trickle of electricity.
The material can be used to recycle waste gases, curbing greenhouse emissions as well as creating a useful product. These products, like methane, can be sold to offset pollution reduction costs and provide another energy source. The researchers published their results earlier this month in the journal Chemical Communications.
Using a blend of copper and gold formed into nanoparticles, the new recipe overcomes some of the previous challenges to developing an efficient way to repurpose carbon.
“To use the catalyst, Xu said that carbon dioxide needs to be dissolved in a liquid. The fluid then must flow over the copper and gold as a voltage is applied, producing hydrocarbon fuels, which are then harvested.”
Just dissolve smokestack gasses in water.
Piece o’ cake.
“But there are still challenges. Right now, the researchers can’t control what kinds of hydrocarbons are produced, whether they are methane, methanol or a longer-chained molecule, so they need to figure out what’s going on at a molecular level as they perfect the recipe.”
Miscellaneous organic compounds? I think
that is called “tar.” These alchemists have
figured out how to turn a gas necessary
for life into carcinogens. Nobel prize
pending?
So, methane (or other hydrocarbon) and oxygen make water and carbon dioxide while giving off energy (heat):
CH4 + 2O2 = 2H20 + CO2 + energy
This new technology takes CO2 and water, adds energy to make methane:
2H20 + CO2 + energy = CH4 + 2O2
They say that the amount of electricity needed (the “energy” in the second reaction) is “very small”. Unless “very small” is at least as large as the energy liberated in the original oxidation of the hydrocarbon, the second law of thermodynamics is being violated.
Or…energy is being absorbed from the copper and/or gold catalyst. Energy which must somehow be replaced when the catalyst is replaced.
No magic here.