Turning carbon dioxide into fuel
We can convert CO2 into a useable fuel and go some way to solving energy storage problems for renewable energy – and reduce greenhouse gas at the same time. Very cool
I just listened to a fascinating presentation about technology that can convert CO2 into fuel (methane). Professor Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci from the Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells spoke to a crowd from the Bio21 Institute on a range of nanotechnologies used to make plastic solar cells and printable batteries. The coolest part though was the research behind a spin-out company that uses the principles of photosynthesis to turn CO2 into methane.
Prof Serdar showed figures that indicated a large of excess power often produced by Germany’s wind turbines, so much power in fact that the companies have them shut down for 20% of the time otherwise the power grid goes into a form of meltdown. It is this excess power that is hoped will drive the process to reduce CO2 to methane. It is early days, but they have a small-scale pilot plant running.
And the next coolest thing is that it helps solve two problems at once. First it goes a long way to solving the energy storage problem for renewable energy. That is, any excess energy is turned into a storable fuel in the form of methane, although they are working on tweaking the technology to make a more useable form of fuel. Second there is the removal of at least some of the CO2 from the atmosphere.
More information can be found here, but it’s all in German unfortunately
Jason