4 ms·

Interesting that it's a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide that it produces. Wonder what the safety implications are.

pizza 10y ago
Could a catalytic converter be used to create CO2 from CO? edit: I forgot what it took as input for a sec there..
- lisper 10y ago
  > Could a catalytic converter be used to create CO2 from CO? You don't need a catalytic converter, you can just burn it. But breathing a sigh of relief that we can "safely" dispose of the CO in this way is missing the point rather badly.
ams6110 10y ago
CO is easy to convert to CO₂, just burn it and feed the CO₂ back into the process.
twic 10y ago
As it says in the article: "the artificial leaf delivers syngas, or synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide. Syngas can be burned directly, or converted into diesel or other hydrocarbon fuels." Hydrogen and carbon dioxide are the feedstocks for the Fischer-Tropsch process, which produces conventional hydrocarbon fuel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_proces... In other words, H2 and CO are exactly what you want!
- evgen 10y ago
  Probably also worth noting that syngas is the primary input for the Haber-Bosch method used to generate the ammonia feedstock for most of our synthetic fertilizers. If you just take the CO and pump it underground then you are actually producing fertilizer for agriculture using a carbon negative process.
  - HillaryBriss 10y ago
    > ... take the CO and pump it underground then you are actually producing fertilizer for agriculture Interesting. How does the CO fertilize the plants?
    - efng 10y ago
      I assume he meant carbon sequestration.
      - evgen 10y ago
        Yes, my prose was a bit less clear than I had intended. You can oxidize the CO and be carbon neutral or sequester it and be carbon negative.
    - neltnerb 10y ago
      The hydrogen is combined with atmospheric nitrogen to produce ammonia. Usually we source it from natural gas, so all our fertilizer is incredibly carbon intensive to make whereas this would at least be carbon neutral. At the end, you'd just oxidize the CO back to CO2 before release, like a catalytic converter does, or use the CO as a chemical building block to produce hydrocarbons.
maxerickson 10y ago
Prior to the use of natural gas, such a mixture was used for lighting and cooking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas I guess it won't be much different than natural gas from a safety standpoint.
- Skunkleton 10y ago
  Ehh, I would rather breath natural gas. https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/text_version/chemicals.php?id=18 https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/text_version/chemicals.php?id=18
pjc50 10y ago
That's syngas, which is very useful; you can use it to make natural gas, petrol, and the whole range of petrochemicals we're used to.

pizza 10y ago

Could a catalytic converter be used to create CO2 from CO? edit: I forgot what it took as input for a sec there..

lisper 10y ago
> Could a catalytic converter be used to create CO2 from CO? You don't need a catalytic converter, you can just burn it. But breathing a sigh of relief that we can "safely" dispose of the CO in this way is missing the point rather badly.

ams6110 10y ago

CO is easy to convert to CO₂, just burn it and feed the CO₂ back into the process.

twic 10y ago

As it says in the article: "the artificial leaf delivers syngas, or synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide. Syngas can be burned directly, or converted into diesel or other hydrocarbon fuels." Hydrogen and carbon dioxide are the feedstocks for the Fischer-Tropsch process, which produces conventional hydrocarbon fuel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_proces... In other words, H2 and CO are exactly what you want!

evgen 10y ago
Probably also worth noting that syngas is the primary input for the Haber-Bosch method used to generate the ammonia feedstock for most of our synthetic fertilizers. If you just take the CO and pump it underground then you are actually producing fertilizer for agriculture using a carbon negative process.
- HillaryBriss 10y ago
  > ... take the CO and pump it underground then you are actually producing fertilizer for agriculture Interesting. How does the CO fertilize the plants?
  - efng 10y ago
    I assume he meant carbon sequestration.
    - evgen 10y ago
      Yes, my prose was a bit less clear than I had intended. You can oxidize the CO and be carbon neutral or sequester it and be carbon negative.
  - neltnerb 10y ago
    The hydrogen is combined with atmospheric nitrogen to produce ammonia. Usually we source it from natural gas, so all our fertilizer is incredibly carbon intensive to make whereas this would at least be carbon neutral. At the end, you'd just oxidize the CO back to CO2 before release, like a catalytic converter does, or use the CO as a chemical building block to produce hydrocarbons.

maxerickson 10y ago

Prior to the use of natural gas, such a mixture was used for lighting and cooking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas I guess it won't be much different than natural gas from a safety standpoint.

Skunkleton 10y ago
Ehh, I would rather breath natural gas. https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/text_version/chemicals.php?id=18 https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/text_version/chemicals.php?id=18

pjc50 10y ago

That's syngas, which is very useful; you can use it to make natural gas, petrol, and the whole range of petrochemicals we're used to.