r/science • u/Wagamaga • Aug 06 '20

Chemistry 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-fuel
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u/Commi_M Aug 07 '20 edited Aug 07 '20

actually in the paper they describe the process as breaking down co2 and water so this would probably be fine as long as it can be balanced to be stoichiometrically correct: 3H2O + 2 CO2 --> CH3CH2OH + 3O2

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u/TracyMorganFreeman Aug 07 '20

Water as a percent of the atmosphere is usually much larger than CO2 unfortunately, except in the dryest and lowest of climates

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u/Commi_M Aug 08 '20 edited Aug 08 '20

whoa, i just read the wikipedia article about atmospheric chemistry: no kidding, water vapour varies between 10ppm and 50.000ppm (5%) mostly driven by temperature differences.
Edit: ok most climate zones would be too wet for this. 600ppm water vapour only happens in arctic climate and some cold deserts.