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.

[u/Wagamaga]

https://www.anl.gov/article/turning-carbon-dioxide-into-liquid-fuel

[u/amish_novelty]

Mind if I ask how much potential this has? I’ve just read articles like these where something neat and promising is discovered but then there was no news about it afterwards. I wonder how applicable this could be to different industries.

[u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS → u/amish_novelty]

It has potential but will likely come down to cost. Catalysts can be reused but are absurdly expensive, and if they need to scrub the catalyst between runs then it can create downtime and waste. There's also the question of how clean they need the CO2 to be before it is run.

But, it is an interesting thing with interesting applications that might be able to work out well. Hell, if they can make it small enough they might even be able to make portable units.

[u/MechaSkippy → u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS]

Yup. If it can run on atmospheric mix and only selectively extracts the CO2, this is game changing. If the CO2 needs to be 90+% pure, now we’re talking about refrigeration and pressure changes to extract nitrogen and oxygen and the allure goes away.

[u/seventhpaw → u/MechaSkippy]

MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air. The process could work on the gas at any concentrations, from power plant emissions to open air.

Pretty neat stuff.

[u/MechaSkippy → u/seventhpaw]

Neat!