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New Solar Cells Can Convert CO2 Into Hydrocarbon Fuel (nextbigfuture.com)
"Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have engineered a potentially game-changing solar cell that cheaply and efficiently converts atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into usable hydrocarbon fuel, using only sunlight for energy," reports Next Big Future. Slashdot reader William Robinson writes:
This artificial leaf delivers syngas, or synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide. Syngas can be burned directly, or converted into diesel or other hydrocarbon fuels. The discovery opens up possibilities of clean reusable energy.
"A solar farm of such 'artificial leaves' could remove significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and produce energy-dense fuel efficiently..." according to the article, which adds that the process could prove useful in the high-carbon atmosphere of Mars. "Unlike conventional solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity that must be stored in heavy batteries, the new device essentially does the work of plants, converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into fuel, solving two crucial problems at once."
"A solar farm of such 'artificial leaves' could remove significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and produce energy-dense fuel efficiently..." according to the article, which adds that the process could prove useful in the high-carbon atmosphere of Mars. "Unlike conventional solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity that must be stored in heavy batteries, the new device essentially does the work of plants, converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into fuel, solving two crucial problems at once."
Whether or not this is interesting really depends on the expected power / area and cost (production and operating) of an engineering version. It is better than bio-fuels by those measures?
Because so far most of these carbon removing technologies fall way short of just planting a grove of trees. This seems like one of those problems where maybe nature is handing us a simpler solution. But for the sake of science (and keeping that funding flowing) we go out of our way to make a less efficient, more expensive machine to do the job that a tree will do for free.
It is not better than photovoltaic cells. It is just more compatible with our current energy infrastructure. There are billions of cars out there that run on hydrocarbons. It is way easier to give them a clean source of hydrocarbons than to scrap them and build billions of electric cars.
entropy happens
It does solve the storage problem though. Unlike plain solar, you don't need to buy a huge bank of batteries if you want to use it later. Much of the efficiency of solar comes from the fact that you get electricity directly, and electricity is what you use. As soon as you want the energy in a lightweight and portable form, solar loses its efficiency.
So the main competition for this technology is not regular solar, but plants and algae, which are much cheaper to grow.
Syngas can be converted to gasoline or diesel via the Fischer-Tropsch process.
Which also generates a bunch of heat at temperatures moderately above water's boiling point, which must be removed to keep the process in its optimal temperature range. This is suitable for co-generation, producing more electriity than is needed to run the plant. So in addition to clean diesel fuel (or gasoline with a little refining) and a bit of chemical feedstock, you get to feed the grid.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Then in ten years we will wonder what the fuck happened.
The main reason most of these things don't come to market is that inventions are coming so rapidly that something BETTER comes along and obsoletes them before they reach manufacturing and deployment.
Nevertheless, enough make it that things are improving substantially. For instance: Photovoltaic prices recently "crossed-over" grid power costs for much of the temperate-zone sunny sites - even without further government subsidies on manufacture and installation. That's a BIG change from a decade ago.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Dude this is older than photography ! :
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/A_Peep_at_the_Gas_Lights_in_Pall_Mall_Rowlandson_1809.jpg
By the mid to late 19th century sizable infrastructure was built to produce a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in huge complicated plants, and distribute it in major cities through pipes, for lighting - especially street lights - and maybe cooking and heating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Coal gasification processes to create syngas were used for many years to manufacture illuminating gas (coal gas) for gas lighting, cooking and to some extent, heating, before electric lighting and the natural gas infrastructure became widely available.[citation needed] Although the syngas chemical composition can vary based on the raw materials and the processes, the syngas from coal gasification generally is a mixture of 30 to 60% carbon monoxide, 25 to 30% hydrogen, 5 to 15% carbon dioxide, and 0 to 5% methane. It also contains lesser amount of other gases.[19]
The syngas produced in waste-to-energy gasification facilities can be used to generate electricity.
Of course, a leak or poor piping might make you pass out and die from carbon monoxide poisoning or perhaps you might poison yourself with a gas stove. But indoor (or outdoor) open fires of wood or coal had their share of problems too.
We already have a working prototype cell that turns sunlight and CO2 into a burnable fuel.
You might already be familiar with them. They call them "trees."
You convert CO2 in CO. Then you oxidize it to get CO2 back.
No CO2 sequestration at all!
So, how would this be better than photovoltaic cells?
It's better because every time there's a story on photvoltaic cells, a bunch of self-appointed geniuses yell: "I'm the first person to realize that the sun doesn't shine all day! It won't do any good without energy storage!!1!"
Well, here's a solar technology with built-in energy storage.
Powering transportation solely on electricity gives the state the ability to decide when, where, and how much you can use because it's a public utility but under the legal control of the state.
Uh, what? Powering transportation solely with electricity is the only way an individual can become energy independent. I can install enough photovoltaic panels to power a Tesla for literally all of my driving needs (I fly when I travel long distances). Those panels are not only not a public utility, but quite specifically my private property. If I lived in the country, I could put up a windmill, either instead of or in addition to photovoltaic panels. Again, private property. Install enough of them, and a battery bank in the basement, and I can disconnect my house from that public utility too.
I certainly can't drill an oil well in my backyard and run an oil refinery in my basement. I can't strip mine my backyard for coal and run a steam-powered car. I can't cut enough trees to burn wood and run a steam-powered car either. I can't even plant enough switchgrass, harvest it, and make enough ethanol. Even if I could strip mine my backyard for coal, it would have to be half a mile thick to handle my transportation needs for the rest of my life, and coal just doesn't come that way.
Neither fossil fuels nor biofuels can fuel my transportation needs. Either I'm not allowed to utilize them (and wouldn't want to, because of the stench), or they literally aren't energy-dense enough, respectively. Biofuels depend on plants, which are lucky to convert even 3% of the sunlight falling on them, and they convert into biomolecules that I have to do something dramatic to in order to utilize their energy (usually at further loss). Commercial off the shelf photovoltaic panels convert sunlight at 22% efficiency, directly into electricity I can use, or can convert into something I can use with well-understood, cheap circuitry.
Powering transportation, and indeed everything else, solely on electricity is the one and only path to personal energy independence that can be pursued by more than a handful of farmers with massive amounts of acreage. And it's physically possible today. Right now. For everybody in the world who lives in low density housing. It's not financially possible for most just yet, but at least physics isn't preventing it.