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Carbon dioxide can be converted directly into ethanol using copper nanoparticles on a nitrogen-doped graphene film:
In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol. Their finding, which involves nanofabrication and catalysis science, was serendipitous. [...] The team used a catalyst made of carbon, copper and nitrogen and applied voltage to trigger a complicated chemical reaction that essentially reverses the combustion process. With the help of the nanotechnology-based catalyst which contains multiple reaction sites, the solution of carbon dioxide dissolved in water turned into ethanol with a yield of 63 percent. Typically, this type of electrochemical reaction results in a mix of several different products in small amounts.
High-Selectivity Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to Ethanol using a Copper Nanoparticle/N-Doped Graphene Electrode (open, DOI: 10.1002/slct.201601169) (DX)
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Saturday October 15 2016, @10:26PM
The article proposes to use it as excess energy storage for solar and wind. Unlike pumped-storage hydroelectricity [wikipedia.org] or something like that, you can ship the ethanol someplace else.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 15 2016, @11:15PM
hmm... well, not really. Only short-term.
Can it scale to industrial levels? How long does that catalyst material last? How fast is the catalyst process? How sensitive is the catalyst to input impurities?
Those are close to the top of the list of "important questions" too as "energy efficiency", too.
Granted, if it takes a nuclear power plant output to process 1 Kg of CO2/day to ethanol, then the process is a nice laboratory trick, if that.