US company Dimensional Energy has developed an \u201cartificial photosynthesis\u201d process with a photoreactor that converts carbon dioxide, using sunlight and water, into synthetic fuels and gases like methanol.<\/p>\n
A startup company backed by energy giant Shell has developed a method to turn carbon dioxide into fuel by adding fake sunlight.<\/p>\n
US company Dimensional Energy has developed an \u201cartificial photosynthesis\u201d process with a photoreactor that converts carbon dioxide, using sunlight and water, into synthetic fuels and gases like methanol.<\/p>\n
David Erickson, a co-founder of the company and professor at Cornell University, said the process uses carbon dioxide as a feedstock to create gas using artificial photosynthesis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn industrial uses, we can capture carbon dioxide from commercial entities before it leaks into the atmosphere. We put it into our reactor, add hydrogen and sunlight. All of this goes into our machine and comes out as a useful fuel,\u201d Professor Erickson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe resulting methanol can be used for transportation, energy, heating and cooking with gas stoves. Since it was formed from a process that removed carbon from the atmosphere, it\u2019s neutral \u2013 we can use it guilt free.\u201d<\/p>\n
The process was designed as a step beyond typical carbon dioxide emissions mitigation such as carbon capture and storage.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy not viewing fossil fuels and feedstocks through a circular economy lens, we estimate these companies miss an opportunity for approximately $US50 billion per year in potential profit from hydrocarbons, including methanol, that could be made with waste CO2,\u201d the company stated.<\/p>\n
Fellow founder of Dimensional, Tobias Hanrath, said it can help tackle climate change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ubiquitous process of combustion has gotten humanity in trouble,\u201d Professor Hanrath said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeking to develop a reverse combustion process \u2013 artificial photosynthesis \u2013 where you make carbon dioxide an input and, from that, create a value-added product.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dimensional Energy is aiming to produce a larger scale reactor, building a pilot plant with an already identified \u2013 but as yet unnamed \u2013 partner in 2020.<\/p>\n
This is not the first unique carbon dioxide reduction program.<\/p>\n
In Iceland, one of the world\u2019s largest geothermal power plants began capturing carbon emissions and turning them into stone.<\/p>\n
The operation, a joint venture between Climeworks and Reykjavik Energy, is an evolution of the world’s first commercial carbon capture facility – the Direct Air Capture plant which opened in Switzerland in June last year and is also run by Climeworks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US company Dimensional Energy has developed an \u201cartificial photosynthesis\u201d process with a photoreactor that converts carbon dioxide, using sunlight and water, into synthetic fuels and gases like methanol. A startup company backed by energy giant Shell has developed a method to turn carbon dioxide into fuel by adding fake sunlight. US company Dimensional Energy has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,5571],"tags":[10744,10743],"supplier":[5419,1166,13852,647],"class_list":["post-56564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","category-co2-based","tag-carboncapture","tag-useco2","supplier-climeworks","supplier-cornell-university-usa","supplier-dimensional-energy","supplier-shell-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56564"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=56564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}