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As soon as we can convert CO2 into hydrocarbons using solar or wind power in a way that's cost-competitive with conventional extraction we'll have turned an imp
by astrodust 9y ago
As soon as we can convert CO2 into hydrocarbons using solar or wind power in a way that's cost-competitive with conventional extraction we'll have turned an important corner in developing as a society.
- maxerickson 9y agoI wonder if that is more of a technological problem or more of a social problem (recognizing the costs of conventional extraction).
- astrodust 9y agoIf you can discover a way to cost-effectively synthesize hydrocarbons (CH chains) from CO2 and H2O, which contain all of the necessary components, you're pretty much guaranteed a Nobel prize. So far the process to do this involves a lot of messy intermediate steps, like hundreds of millions of years and enormous pressure in the mantle of the Earth.
- maxerickson 9y agoThere are pilot projects: http://www.audi.com/corporate/en/corporate-responsibility/we-live-responsibility/product/audi-e-gas-project.html http://www.audi.com/corporate/en/corporate-responsibility/we... (mentioned on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier_reaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier_reaction) Who knows what the economics really are, but they don't sound dire.
- 24gttghh 9y agoWhy not avoid making the CO2 in the first place? There's a reason Reduce comes first in the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" mantra.
- maxerickson 9y agoThat's essentially what they mean. We need energy in portable forms (and have other uses for hydrocarbons). Getting that energy from clean sources and storing it with atmospheric CO2 is better than burning fossil sources of energy.
- astrodust 9y agoYeah, if you close the loop you absolutely eliminate the problem of carbon buildup in the atmosphere.
- logfromblammo 9y agoGrowing sugarcane does a pretty good job of converting CO2 into hydrocarbons using solar power. But to be cost-competitive with fracked methane, I'm pretty sure we're going to need some heavily genetically-engineered strains of algae, growing in artificial forests of pipes. The irony is that algae can be used to clean up fracking wastewater, so it makes methane production cheaper as it competes.
- astrodust 9y agoSugarcane and switchgrass might be able to close the loop, but these take a lot of mechanical processing and land to do so, which could introduce additional costs. The promise of syntetic fossil fuels from things like water and CO2 is that you don't need a lot of land, you just need energy, and that energy can be renewable.