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Researchers have used liquid metals to turn carbon dioxide back into solid coal, in a world-first breakthrough that could transform our approach to carbon capture and storage.
The research team led by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a new technique that can efficiently convert CO2 from a gas into solid particles of carbon.
Published in the journal Nature Communications, the research offers an alternative pathway for safely and permanently removing the greenhouse gas from our atmosphere.
Current technologies for carbon capture and storage focus on compressing CO2 into a liquid form, transporting it to a suitable site and injecting it underground.
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Climate Rewind: Scientists Turn Carbon Dioxide Back Into Coal
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New crypt. See /usr/news/crypt.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Roo_Boy on Thursday February 28 2019, @04:03PM (2 children)
* disclosure - I work for a non-ferrous hard rock mining company *
Whilst this may be interesting one thing I find irritating with almost all media is the "ZOMG coal is BAD!!!!" without differentiating between the different types.
I grant that thermal coal (brown, steaming) is nasty arse crap that we should wean ourselves off as soon as it is possible for use as a fuel, however metallurgical coal (anthracite, bituminous) is vital for creating steel and other industrial applications. Unless a chemist comes up with a new technique we either need to keep using metallurgical coal or stop using steel. If this technique can replace these types of coal for steel production then that should help reduce the impact of steel production.
--- The S.I. prototype "Average Punter" is kept in a tube of inert gas in Geneva.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday February 28 2019, @05:53PM
From reports (above) of what the article said the end product would not be anthracite. It would have embedded gases and cerium (and other stuff). And this is just a lab bench setup, so a production version would probably be considerably more contaminated...either that or it would only produce carbon dust after impurities were removed. (IOW coke powder...which, admittedly, and substitute for anthracite in many processes, but at a much higher cost.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 28 2019, @07:47PM
Well I agree that we should use this carbon in carbon steel if we're going to bother extracting it.
However, coal extraction is pretty harmful all by itself.
65% of US coal is still strip-mined, for example.
Effects of coal mining [eia.gov]