r/climatechange • u/technologyisnatural • Aug 06 '20
Turning carbon dioxide into liquid fuel. Scientists have discovered a new electrocatalyst that converts carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into ethanol with very high energy efficiency, high selectivity for the desired final product and low cost.
https://www.anl.gov/article/turning-carbon-dioxide-into-liquid-fuel1
u/eccyrider Aug 08 '20
Does burning the ethanol then release the CO2 again? Surely it does?
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u/technologyisnatural Aug 08 '20
Yes, but it is more like burning wood (which uses CO2 to grow) and less like burning fossil fuels that have sequestered carbon for millions of years.
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u/eccyrider Aug 08 '20
So this process is more about current carbon polluting industries being able to capitalize on their waste product. I understand that this would make fossil fuels much more efficient so that's a good thing but surely there are still losses. How would trucks capture their emissions for example.
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u/technologyisnatural Aug 08 '20
Yes, mainly coal and gas fired electric power plants, but can also be used where a power plant has transitioned to biofuels (e.g., wood) or to CO2 captured directly from the atmosphere, etc.
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Aug 12 '20
Right and incentives provide good reason - Soon enough, assuming we adopt this technology or comparable technology, we'll have a system which fully sequesters CO2.
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u/stayathomepop7 Aug 06 '20
There is no free lunch. Where is all this water going to come from? There is no solution without its own set of issues
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u/worldsayshi Aug 06 '20
Arm chair sceptic much? How is water a limited resource in this? And you get the water back when you burn the ethanol.
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u/stayathomepop7 Aug 06 '20
There are water shortages all over the world right now. This process will need to use fresh water or also incur the costs and waste of a desalination plant. Sure - Earth, for the most part, is a closed system, but you aren't considering how complex and wishful thinking these proposed solutions are. Anyway - the Earth is screwed already so it really doesn't matter.
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u/bbbbbbbbbb99 Aug 06 '20
It's too bad water doesn't cover like 2/3 of our planet.
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u/stayathomepop7 Aug 06 '20
That is salt water. This process does not mention using salt water so I am to assume it's H2O. You have not thought this through besides "Our planet has water." and that's the point I'm making. Your thinking is too shallow and that's how we ended up with islands of plastic in our oceans. I'll say it again - there is no free lunch.
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u/bbbbbbbbbb99 Aug 06 '20 edited Aug 07 '20
Lol you see, I anticipated this comment.
It's too bad we can do something as simple as evaporation to produce salt-free water.
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u/fullPlaid Aug 07 '20
This is good news.