CO2 To Fuel, Closing the "Carbon Loop"

leprasmurf writes "Inhabitat has posted an article detailing a recent announcement of a process to turn CO2 into fuel. The process, which used to be considered too energy inefficient, uses a multi-step, low pressure, and low temperature biocatalyst to break the CO2 into 'basic hydrocarbon building blocks.'"

Comments

uh

[niteice]

Photosynthesis?

New section

[LSD-OBS]

Can we please have a new Crackpot (or maybe Quackpot, or Snakepot, shit, I dunno) section on slashdot, specifically for these half-baked bullshit stories? Would make a nice replacement for Idle, methinks.

I mean, unless this was just meant to remind us of high school science & biology. Heck, that'd also make a nice Idle section substitute.

Re:Vaporware alert

[jmorris42]

> There is, of course, mention of "investment opportunities".

Yup, these investor scams show up like clockwork on slashdot these days. One week it is a solar energy scheme that doesn't pass the smell test, some weeks it gets all the way to perpetual motion scams making the front page but lately there does seem to be a need for a green angle being pitched to make slash.

This one is almost certainly a scam. No mention of an energy source is the giveaway. You can't use a catalyst to add energy to a reaction even if you toss the bio- prefix into the ad copy. The diagram on the page does at least have something that looks like tanks but you aren't likely to collect enough solar energy to offset much of a power plant that way. Just feed the CO2 to real biology,,,, like plants, alage, etc. if you want to convert sunlight + CO2 into complex hydrocarbons.

Summary: Energy in energy out

[Joce640k]

In the process called burning, hydrocarbons combine with oxygen and release energy.

To reverse the process (which is what they're saying) you have to put an equal amount of energy back in ... if it's 100% efficient, which it won't be.

The only way to get a net gain is to add some free energy from somewhere. The only plausible source is sunlight, but there's no mention of that on their web site.

Fact is, there's no science at all on their web site, just plenty of links for "investors", "investor FAQs", NASDAQ stock quotes, etc.

For credibility they have a link to a Popular Mechanics article but it's for a completely different C02 treatment process.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4274541.html

Re:Vaporware alert

[jonbryce]

I know an even better one. Plant a willow tree. Wait three years, chop it down. Then keep chopping it down every two years.

Re:Los Alamos' Green Freedom

[Cadallin]

Sadly, that plan has two major drawbacks that will utterly prevent implementation.

1. It would actually work.

2. It is "Nucular." And therefore the NIMBY crowd will kill it with fire.