2y ago

Engineers develop an efficient process to make fuel from carbon dioxide

news.mit.edu

Engineers develop an efficient process to make fuel from carbon dioxide::An efficient new process can convert carbon dioxide into formate, a material that can be used like hydrogen or methanol to power a fuel cell and generate electricity.

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2y ago

Engineers develop an efficient process to make fuel from carbon dioxide

news.mit.edu /2023/engineers-develop-efficient-fuel-process-carbon-dioxide-1030

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2y ago

Engineers develop a 96% efficient process to make formate fuel from CO2

news.mit.edu /2023/engineers-develop-efficient-fuel-process-carbon-dioxide-1030

20 comments

Very misleading title. This is not an energy efficient process (what we need for energy storage), instead it has a high chemical yield.
You know what other methods converts carbon dioxide into energy? Planting potatoes!
- That, and planting trees and never cutting them down. Although at least with potatoes you can make french fries.. french wood sticks definitely aren't so great in the air fryer
  
  no, you can actually cut down grown biomass and process it to chemically stable biochar for soil improvement! for more potatoes for more fries! and a side of coleslaw.
  
  And alcohol. Which is also a fuel.
What's the catch?
- When they say it's efficient, they mean at not letting CO2 go, not in energy cost. Looks like step one is capturing it which is already energy intensive, and step 2 is reacting it with a strong base. So it takes a lot of stuff as input.
  And they did this on a lab bench, not at scale in a plant.
  
  This and fusion, neck and neck.
- Burning it creates enormous clouds of Trioxin 2-4-5.
  
  Does trioxin perchance give one superpowers?
- That it burns the shit back into the atmosphere.
  
  Yes, but if it could provide as an alternative to digging up oil and gass, and get the energy needed to make the transformation from sun, wind or other sustainable sources. It could lower the amount of new CO2 being put into the atmosphere as well as work as a way to store excess energy from wind and sun.
Guys, stop trying to break thermodynamics. You can't. You know this.
So we're gonna spend a whole bunch of energy to capture carbon, then use even more to turn it into fuel, and then just burn it again? Yea sorry, I am not convinced.
Edit: Unless if course they propose it for grid balancing, like we talk about doing with hydrogen. In that case, I wanna know exact energy efficiency numbers and equipment cost.
- Carbon neutral fuel is a good thing.

20 comments