The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere continue to increase and potentially reported to cause climate change. Various efforts to decrease emissions done, but many are not yet stable, so the result still can be enjoyed.
Byron Elton, chief executive of the Carbon Science, start-up company from Santa Barbara California had an idea out of the box to solve the problem. He proposed to mine the air, take CO2, recycle it to be processed into fuel. As is known, emissions from fuel and the industry is the biggest contribution to climate change.
"You've got all this CO2, this disgusting thing, what would you do. People say, 'reduce, hide'. We say, 'no, give it to us and we will turn it into fuel," Elton said in National Geographic.
To do so, Elton developed a catalyst made of nickel metal, cobalt, aluminum and magnesium. With the help of metal catalysts that have been patented Carbon Science, the fuel can be created by combining CO2 with natural gas.
So far, Carbon Science has managed to combine CO2 with methane (the main constituent of natural gas) to produce syngas. Syngas is simply the "spine" of the hydrocarbons that can later be converted into fuel.
"We believe our approach will be key to the transformation of greenhouse gases into the fuel that is cost effective on a global scale," said Elton. He said the use of a patented metal catalysts will also reduce costs because it is cheaper.
Elton said, there are several advantages of using this recycled fuel. "Carbon is used twice, did not immediately disappear into thin air. It is also directly address the issue of energy security," he said.
Clearly, if the right can be realized, recycling CO2 may reduce dependence on petroleum. The idea of electricity as a fuel in electric car has not been able to meet the needs of air and sea transportation. Recycling CO2 can handle it.
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