Prof Clifford Kubiak from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has taken his research, of developing a way to create oxygen for a possible manned mission to Mars, to a different tangent than it was intended for. This was by coming up with the first step to the means of creating fuel from Carbon Dioxide, a very harmful greenhouse gas.
His process involves the splitting up of Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen from CO2 with the help of sunlight and a catalyst. From there, via the Fischer-Tropsch process, Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen can be processed to create synthetic gas and plastic products. Prof Kubiak admits however that the method will only bear fruit after 10 years when more research has been done to refine the technology.
Truly amazing and paradigm shifting I have to say. Considering that CO2 is one of the most abundant materials on this planet right now causing Global Warming, being able to use it as a fuel in the near future is the next big thing in the “Recycling” business. Aside from solving the fuel problem, this also solves the problem of: how will we make our plastics, once oil runs out. That’s because plastics are made from oil.
Economy wise, if the price of fuel keeps going up, the cost of making fuel from this new technology could very well prove to be practical. As was the case with biofuels before, it just couldn’t compete with the price of petrol fuel till now. However, as with any new technology, caveats must still be taken. With this possible abundance of fuel, would it compel us to be gluttonous again in our use of fuel by means of gas guzzling cars and a wasteful lifestyle? I hope not, otherwise it just defeats the purpose of trying to conserve other scarce resources. Personally of course, I don’t expect to see lower pump prices if ever this technology goes mainstream because of the cost of producing oil this way, unless they can truly say right now that it will make oil cheaper I will go for the “worst-price-scenario”. So with this, auto manufacturers should still do their share of making cars more energy efficient.
Article here
Category: New Tech
April 26th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I think what will happen in 15~20 years time is that we will begin to see the wide adoption of CO2-fueled cars whose byproduct will be oxygen. This will lead to cleaner air conducive to the proliferation of members of the animal kingdom, but will also lead to the demise of plants because oxygen is toxic to them.
The plant kingdom will die, bringing with it herbivorous animals. Eventually, carnivorous and omnivorous animals will die as well leaving only cockroaches to roam the earth because cockroaches, as we all know, are filthy creatures that will eat anything, living or non-living.
(This is meant as a joke. Not to be taken seriously. I for one, would be interested in the development of these CO2-powered vehicles.)
April 27th, 2007 at 5:06 am
Hahaha I just hope you’re not prophetic