Making fuel from CO2 and solar energy?

Made from CO2?

CO2 emissions are one of the biggest contributors to global warming and thus plans are being devised on how to store, reduce or utilize the gas. While there are traditional methods like carbon capture and storage, a team of scientists at Sandia National Laboratories believe they can make a synthetic fuel using CO2 and solar energy.

The team hope that by using a cerium-oxide-based system to turn CO2 into carbon monoxide, they can considerably reduce CO2 emissions. By also using the process to turn water into hydrogen, the team believe they can produce a form of synthetic fuel.

By using a two-chambered machine, made of rotating rings of cerium oxide and a huge parabolic mirror heating up the solar energy to 1,500 degrees, oxygen is released from the cerium oxide which is in turn pumped out. It is then mixed with the the pumped CO2 to produce cerium oxide and carbon monoxide.

The initial plan is to utilize the CO2 from power-plant chimneys initially, but it could be adapted to take CO2 directly from the air.

Syngas

The product, tentatively called Syngas- the synthetic fuel, is created using solar energy with mirrors being used to create concentrated solar energy at 400 degrees. This forms calcium carbonate due a reaction between CO2 and calcium oxide.

This is then heated again to 800 degrees with solar power and another reaction takes place releasing pure CO2 and calcium oxide. In a separate process with CO2 and zinc oxide, zinc metal and oxygen molecules are produced. When zinc, steam and CO2 are combined, they produce the synthetic fuel called Syngas as well as zinc oxide.

Speaking to New Scientist, James Miller, combustion chemist at Sandia and a member of the team, said, "It is a huge challenge in itself. This area holds out the promise for technologies that can produce large amounts of carbon-neutral power at affordable prices, which can be used where and when that power is needed."

It summed it all up saying, "It is one of the few technology areas that could truly revolutionise our energy future" - that's quite the understatement.

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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