Sustainable Recycled CO2 Fuel

Did you ever take a carbon footprint test in school where you get to see how many carbon compounds your day-to-day activities emit into the atmosphere? Carbon dioxide emissions are a big culprit for global warming and engineers around the world have been working toward finding other solutions to reduce those emissions. One solution is capturing and recycling carbon dioxide from the air and turning it into fuel.

Why Sustainable Fuel is Important

Cars, trains, planes, and boats all play a role in CO2 emissions. Imagine being able to replace the current fuel people use with a gasoline that is carbon-free. That wouldn’t remove all the CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, but it would reduce new carbon dioxide emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.

The idea of capturing carbon dioxide out of the air and converting it into fuel has been around for many years. Mass producing sustainable fuel wasn’t feasible a few years ago because of the projected high cost to produce. But through trial and error, engineers have found a more sustainable solution to able to provide people with a carbon-free fuel at a much lower cost for production.

The Process

Engineers at Carbon Engineering, based out of Canada, have found a way to recycle carbon dioxide by pulling it out of the air before it gets into the atmosphere. They’ve accomplished this through the use of multiple giant fans that contain a water-like chemical that captures carbon dioxide as the air gets pulled through. The carbon dioxide that is extracted from the air then gets heated and goes through various chemical reactions that separate the CO2 molecules.

While the CO2 molecules are isolated, hydrogen, which is produced from electrolysis, is added to the mix. Electrolysis is a chemical process that occurs when electricity is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules. The hydrogen that gets split out, is then combined with the CO2 molecules to convert the solution into small pellets of calcium carbonate, which engineers have used to make sustainable carbon-free fuel. Because the CO2 is being extracted from the air and recycled, it allows this process to be sustainable and low cost.

The Future

The great thing about CO2 fuel is that current vehicles would not need any modifications in order to use the fuel and it could also be used for jets and planes. If this fuel can make its way to the masses, we’ll be a little closer to reducing our carbon footprint. The next step toward bringing carbon captured fuel into the mainstream is funding from private companies and governments to develop these carbon dioxide recycling plants.

Conclusion

Here at Air Source, we care about the environment and follow green practices at our company. Air Source Industries provides quality industrial gases for your business needs in the Orange County and Los Angeles County areas. We also offer scheduled deliveries to your business to make your life easier. For a free quote, please call our experts to help you get started. Call us at (562) 426-4017 or get a gas quote online.

 

Sources:
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/carbon-capture-to-fuel-is-almost-here.htm
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/environment/capturing-carbon-dioxide-from-air-could-be-done-for-100-a-ton
https://phys.org/news/2018-06-carbon-dioxide-sky-fuels.html
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/06/carbon-engineering-liquid-fuel-carbon-capture-neutral-science/
https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(18)30225-3