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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the were-they-in-Denver? dept.

It may sound too good to be true, but TU Delft PhD student Ming Ma has found a way to produce alcohol out of thin air. Or to be more precise, he has found how to effectively and precisely control the process of electroreduction of CO2 to produce a wide range of useful products, including alcohol. Being able to use CO2 as such a resource may be pivotal in tackling climate change. His PhD defence will take place on September 14th.

[...] For mitigating atmospheric CO2 concentration, carbon capture and utilization (CCU) could be a feasible alternative strategy to carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). The electrochemical reduction of CO2 to fuels and value-added chemicals has attracted considerable attention as a promising solution. In this process, the captured CO2 is used as a resource and converted into carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), ethylene (C2H4), and even liquid products such as formic acid (HCOOH), methanol (CH3OH) and ethanol (C2H5OH).

The high energy density hydrocarbons can be directly and conveniently utilized as fuels within the current energy infrastructure. In addition, the production of CO is very interesting since it can be used as feedstock in the Fischer–Tropsch process, a well-developed technology that has been widely used in industry to convert syngas (CO and hydrogen (H2)) into valuable chemicals such as methanol and synthetic fuels (such as diesel fuel). The figure attached describes these three processes and the way electroreduction of CO2 could potentially close the carbon cycle.

Beer, from air. Others use barley as an intermediary.

Publication: Aula TU Delft, PhD defence Ming Ma, Selective Electrocatalytic CO2 Conversion on Metal Surfaces.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Fluffeh on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:40AM (1 child)

    by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:40AM (#566556) Journal

    From TFA:

    In his PhD thesis Ming Ma, working in the group of Dr. Wilson A. Smith, describes the processes that take place at the nanoscale when different metals are used in the electroreduction of CO2. For example, using copper nanowires in the electroreduction process leads to the production of hydrocarbons, while nanoporous silver can produce CO. Furthermore, as Ma discovered, the process can be very precisely regulated by changing the lengths of the nanowires, and the electric potential. By tuning these conditions, he is able to produce any carbon based product, or combinations in any ratio desired, thus producing the resources for the three follow up processes described above.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Tuesday September 12 2017, @09:16AM

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday September 12 2017, @09:16AM (#566640)

    See also Fischer-Tropsch process [wikipedia.org]. It's not a new idea.