The research could one day create a sustainable fuel source from greenhouse gas emissions
They’re making fuel from thin air at the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute.
For the first time, researchers there have directly converted carbon dioxide from the air into methanol at relatively low temperatures.
The work, led by G.K. Surya Prakash and George Olah of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, is part of a broader effort to stabilize the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by using renewable energy to transform the greenhouse gas into its combustible cousin – attacking global warming from two angles simultaneously. Methanol is a clean-burning fuel for internal combustion engines, a fuel for fuel cells and a raw material used to produce many petrochemical products.
“We need to learn to manage carbon. That is the future,” said Prakash, professor of chemistry and director of the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute.
The researchers bubbled air through an aqueous solution of pentaethylenehexamine (or PEHA), adding a catalyst to encourage hydrogen to latch onto the CO2 under pressure. They then heated the solution, converting 79 percent of the CO2 into methanol. Though mixed with water, the resulting methanol can be easily distilled, Prakash said.
Industrial use
The new process was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on Dec. 29. Prakash and Olah hope to refine the process to the point that it could be scaled up for industrial use, though that may be five to 10 years away.
“Of course it won’t compete with oil today, at around $30 per barrel,” Prakash said. “But right now we burn fossilized sunshine. We will run out of oil and gas, but the sun will be there for another five billion years. So we need to be better at taking advantage of it as a resource.”
Despite its outsized impact on the environment, the actual concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is relatively small – roughly 400 parts per million, or 0.04 percent of the total volume, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. (For a comparison, there’s more than 23 times as much the noble gas Argon in the atmosphere – which still makes up less than 1 percent of the total volume.)
Lower temperatures
Previous efforts have required a slower multistage process with the use of high temperatures and high concentrations of CO2, meaning that renewable energy sources would not be able to efficiently power the process, as Olah and Prakash hope.
The new system operates at around 125 to 165 degrees Celsius (257 to 359 degrees Fahrenheit), minimizing the decomposition of the catalyst – which occurs at 155 degrees Celsius (311 degrees Fahrenheit). It also uses a homogeneous catalyst, making it a quicker “one-pot” process. In a lab, the researchers demonstrated that they were able to run the process five times with only minimal loss of the effectiveness of the catalyst.
Learn more: Turning air into fuel: USC scientists convert carbon dioxide into methanol
The Latest on: Carbon dioxide directly into methanol
via Google News
The Latest on: Carbon dioxide directly into methanol
- BP Directly Supplies China Gas Customers with LNGon January 26, 2021 at 5:57 am
BP (NYSE: BP) announced Monday that it has begun directly supplying gas customers in China with liquefied natural gas (LNG) that it has imported into the country.
- IRENA/MI Renewable Methanol Webinar to be Held on 27 Januaryon January 21, 2021 at 7:59 am
The webinar will feature the release of the joint IRENA-MI report "Innovation Outlook: Renewable Methanol" WASHINGTON, DC, USA, 2021 / EINPresswire.com / -- Please register now for an exciting webinar ...
- Washington state nixes methanol plant meant to supply Chinaon January 19, 2021 at 11:59 pm
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Officials in Washington state denied a key permit for a large proposed methanol plant Tuesday, saying the project that aims to send the chemical to China to be used ...
- Washington state nixes methanol plant meant to supply Chinaon January 19, 2021 at 5:05 pm
The $2 billion Northwest Innovation Works plant proposed in Kalama would take natural gas from Canada and convert it into methanol ... of the largest sources of carbon pollution in Washington ...
- New Trick Turns Air Into Synthetic Gasoline Without Using Any Fossil Fuelson January 15, 2021 at 8:19 am
Of course, this cleanly-synthesized methanol will still burn and give off greenhouse gases whenever it’s used, so even this new process wouldn’t be as good for the planet as electrification and doing ...
- Could the ocean hold the key to reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?on January 13, 2021 at 6:37 am
Most experts agree that halting climate change—and the global warming, extreme heat events and stronger storms that come with it—will require the removal of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses ...
- These Oxford Scientists Just Created Carbon-Neutral Jet Fuel From CO2on January 5, 2021 at 10:13 am
A team of researchers at the University of Oxford have revealed what they say is a cost-effective and efficient way of producing jet fuel from carbon dioxide, offering hope that one day holiday makers ...
- Researchers unveil new method for converting carbon dioxide into jet fuelon December 31, 2020 at 8:00 am
A research team at Oxford University in the United Kingdom has published a study on a novel scientific process that would transform carbon dioxide in the air into an alternative jet fuel that could ...
- Inspired by natureon July 31, 2020 at 1:55 am
Converting carbon dioxide into methanol, a potentially renewable alternative fuel, offers an opportunity to simultaneously form an alternative fuel and cut down on carbon dioxide emissions. Inspired ...
via Bing News