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Scientists Recycle CO2 with Sunlight to Make Fuel

Posted by Soulskill on from the playing-with-hydrocarbons dept.

An anonymous reader brings us this article from Wired about a new method to produce fuel with the help of concentrated sunlight and carbon dioxide. The process "reverses" combustion, breaking down the CO2 into carbon monoxide, which is then used as a building block for hydrocarbons. Quoting: "The Sandia team envisions a day when CR5s are installed in large numbers at coal-fired power plants. Each of them could reclaim 45 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air daily and produce enough carbon monoxide to make 2.5 gallons of fuel. Coupling the CR5 with CO2 reclamation and sequestration technology, which several scientists already are pursuing, could make liquid hydrocarbons a renewable fuel."

5 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. More Technical Info by jcaldwel · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here is a link for more technical information on how this works http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/12/sandia-applying.html

  2. Re:underwhelming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    2.5 gallons of fuel produced per plant, per day, per installed Counter-Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5).

  3. Re:underwhelming by Diego_27182818 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not only that, but the size of a dish required to focus the sunlight on the "barrel" is not mentioned. It is mentioned, from the article

    An 88-square meter solar furnace will blast sunlight into the unit, heating the rings to about 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
    --
    Warning, cape does not enable user to fly
  4. Re:This is by x2A · · Score: 4, Informative

    Seems to be a couple years old though, this page (second story down) which includes the same photo is dated feb 2006, and includes a much better description of how it works, including how they use alternate direction rotation rings for heat conservation within the drum, although it looks like they've more recently been trying it with CO2 instead of H20. This page contains more info and diagram of the counter rotating drum. Very interesting stuff though.

    --
    The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
  5. Urban myth by MyNymWasTaken · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
    Claim: NASA spent millions of dollars developing an "astronaut pen" which would work in outer space while the Soviets solved the same problem by simply using pencils.
    Status: False.