Breakthrough solar cell captures CO2 and sunlight, produces burnable fuel
Now this is interesting. A solar cell that can actually clean the air, while at the same time producing a burnable fuel in the form of hydrocarbons.
However, I think ultimately we still need to stop burning things to produce energy.
https://news.uic.edu/breakthrough-solar-cell-captures-co2-and-sunlight-produces-burnable-fuel
https://news.uic.edu/breakthrough-solar-cell-captures-co2-and-sunlight-produces-burnable-fuel
Now that is X a breakthru that could help save the planet.
I have no issues burning wood to heat a home. It doesn’t add any CO2 to the carbon cycle and clears some of the trees on my property up. These cells, if used to make burnable fuel, only maintain the current carbon levels.
Wow, this would be a great breakthrough! Is it true?
Edwin Laarz I was thinking along similar lines.
Philip Andrew I think it is true. The article is on the University of Illinois at Chicago website. However, with anything like this (new breakthroughs, etc.) it needs to be verified by others before sensible people start taking it for fact.
Edwin Laarz
If this process results in keeping more fossil carbon in the ground, it allows the natural CO2 sequestration processes to begin reducing the level of CO2 in the atmosphere, restoring the balance. Of course, the natural sequestration processes will still require thousands of years to recover to pre-industrial CO2 levels.
Mac Baird I believe if the scientists worldwide concentrate on reducing climate change, and I believe they will, they can reverse it in 100 years.
Mac Baird The damage done in just over a century fixed over thousands of years…progress this is not.
Nice
Edwin Laarz Technology is both the problem and the solution. The time required is simply a function of intention overcoming the inertia of status quo. It may not be that some people resist change as much as they resist being changed.
Mac Baird True. All I am saying with my comment is that using this technology to cycle the CO2 back into the atmosphere is a band-aid, better than nothing. If the tech could be modified to produce something other than a hydrocarbon fuel, the original problem, something like carbon fiber or food then it would be a far more effective solution.
Edwin Laarz
Reducing or eliminating the Human contribution of fossil Carbon to the atmosphere results in a net reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere due to natural sequestration processes. Human sequestration of CO2 would speed up CO2 reduction. This process could be used to that end, if we chose to pump it underground as the ratio of non-combustion energy sources increases. At some point, the Human species will evolve to zero point energy after we overcome the resistance of the Fossil Carbon Energy Industrial Complex.
Mac Baird Yes, let us pump the CO2 underground so that it becomes the problem of future generations. A net reduction in emissions is a good thing, and anything we can do to speed it along is better, but passing the problem to the future is not a solution that responsible generations condone.
Edwin Laarz Sequestration is not pumping CO2 underground as a gas. Mother Nature naturally sequesters CO2 underground as coal, oil, natural gas, peat, methane, methane hydrate, chalk and limestone. Sequestered CO2 poses no problem for future generations as long as we do not burn it and re-release the CO2 into the atmosphere. We have the technology to supplement Mother Nature and accelerate the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. I spent 20 years in the US Submarine Force working with systems designed to remove CO2 (and other toxic gases) from the submarine atmosphere during patrols lasting months. Those technologies have improved a lot over the years since the first nuclear submarine circumnavigated the planet submerged. Food is the only limit to time submerged.
Mac Baird In what form are we sequestering the carbon? Of course it isn’t as gas, but if the form is just a difficulty future generations will need to deal with then it needs to be rethought.
There is a carbon capture and storage project near to my home that was bragging that the carbon would remain sequestered for almost a thousand years, implying that it will leak out eventually. I can’t tell you what the technology they are using is, but it shows the usual short-sightedness that comes with most human endeavours.
Edwin Laarz
There are several solutions, agricultural https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151019112336.htm , chemical https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100714151745.htm , reforestation https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081209221748.htm , limestone rock formation https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150121103234.htm , etc. If we increase the rate of sequestration while decreasing the rate of human technology emissions, Mother Natures processes can begin to restore the balance.
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