Gyanmandu:
In a world-first breakthrough which could lead to cleaner air scientists have turned carbon dioxide back into coal. They say the ground-breaking technique can efficiently convert CO2 from a gas into solid particles of carbon.
The international team led by RMIT University in Australia developed a liquid-metal electrocatalyst that transforms gaseous carbon dioxide directly into carbon-containing solids at room temperature. Current technology for carbon capture and storage focuses on compressing CO2 into a liquid form, transporting it to a suitable site and injecting it underground have both economic and environmental drawbacks. Reducing CO2 to high-value products such as chemical feedstocks and fuel does not permanently trap the carbon. The fuels, for instance, are burned, releasing it all over again. RMIT researcher Torben Daeneke says converting the gas into a solid could be a more sustainable approach. Daeneke’s RMIT colleague Dorna Esrafilzadeh developed the electrochemical technique to capture and convert atmospheric CO2 to storable solid carbon.
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| Carbon Dioxide turned into coal at room temperature |
Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are relentlessly increasing due to fossil fuel combustion which is significantly contributing to global warming. In addition to the global warming implications of fossil fuel usage, supplies of liquid fuels critical for modern life will become more scarce physically and economically. To combat these dual problems of CO2 the breakthrough methodology could prove it's worth and contribution to the reduction and limitation if manufactured in a large scale.
