Saturday, April 11, 2009

CO2 into methane

Via nanotube technology:
The nanotubes are arranged vertically, almost like empty honeycomb. Over the top of the nanotubes sits a thin, reddish-brown layer of copper oxide. Both the copper and titanium oxide act as catalysts, speeding up reactions that take place naturally.

When sunlight hits the copper oxide, carbon dioxide is converted into carbon monoxide. When sunlight hits the titanium oxide, water molecules split apart. The hydrogen freed from the water and the carbon freed from CO2 then recombine to create burnable methane, and the spare oxygen atoms pair up to create breathable oxygen.
Interesting.

2 comments:

  1. I thought we had enough methane from cow farts, now we need a catalytic converter to make more?

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  2. The thing is, they're going to be forced to capture industrial CO2 from smokestacks. This CO2 is going to buried everywhere in big tanks. If they are going to be required to capture it anyway, if someone can figure out a way to turn it into a viable fuel source, I see nothing wrong with that. Methane is a viable fuel source. Acquiring it by capturing cow farts is not viable.

    And burying tanks of CO2 all over the place when there's a way to convert it to fuel+oxygen would be pretty stupid.

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