Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is an essential element in mitigating climate change. The best approach is to not produce the stuff in the first place and the ongoing transition away from fossil fuels is trying to do just that. But realistically, fossil fuels will be with us for a long time to come. Given that, additional approaches are necessary.
Capturing and storing the carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels – known as CCS – is conceptually straightforward but faces both technical problems and economic problems. It has to be cost-effective if it is to be done on a sufficiently large scale.
Carbon capture, utilization and storage – or CCUS – is one way around the economic problem because making practical use of the captured carbon dioxide can pay for the costs of capturing it.
Researchers at MIT have developed a new system that has the potential to convert power plant carbon dioxide emissions into useful fuels for cars, trucks and planes, as well as into chemical feedstocks for many different products.
The system makes use of a novel membrane composed of lanthanum, calcium and iron oxide. When heated up and exposed to carbon dioxide, the membrane allows only the oxygen from the CO2 to pass through, leaving behind carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide can then be used as a fuel by itself, or can be combined with hydrogen to make many other liquid fuels.
The researchers are investigating potential ways to incorporate the technology into power plants where waste heat from the plants and their emissions would be turned into valuable fuels while reducing the plants’ carbon dioxide emissions. It could be a cost-effective way to reduce the impact of fossil fuel use.
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Photo, posted March 5, 2011, courtesy of Flickr.
‘Turning Emissions into Fuel’ from Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
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