Breakthrough solar cell captures carbon dioxide and sunlight, produces burnable fuel

phys.org ^ | July 28, 2016 | Provided by: University of Illinois at Chicago

[PJammers]

More like a battery. And just like a battery, the chemical reaction and balance must be maintained.

I doubt it is any more efficient than current solar batteries and 100 times the price to maintain or replace.

[Future Useless Eater]

Great in theory, but it produces fuel plus Carbon MONOXIDE

So build enough of these and we lower the earths co2 level from 300 to 200 and all plants die,. Plus with all the man-made CO, all animals die.

A globalists perfect world.

[Milton Miteybad]

The ability to turn CO2 into fuel at a cost comparable to a gallon of gasoline would render fossil fuels obsolete.

1. Does this "fuel" actually meet any known engineering standards? (Probably not.)

2. Can this process actually create the vast amounts of this "fuel" necessary to power an industrial society? (Probably not, since CO2 is a trace gas, representing only 0.04% of the atmosphere by volume, however...)

3. If the answer to No. 2 is "Yes," then might we expect, at some point, a deficit of atmospheric CO2, thus rendering life on earth impossible to due insufficient concentrations to support plant life?



If this system works as advertised, it appears that we now have our candidate for the next environmental boogeyman, capable of replacing the IC engine and the air conditioner.

[Red Badger]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngas

[Chaguito]

Breathless reporting, but at an input of 100 w/m², this is not going to make hydrocarbon fuels obsolete. Ever. It’s a kinetic problem, if not thermodynamic.

[HamiltonJay]

If this is true, and turns into a commonly used technology I predict within 20 years, the environmentalists will start claiming we are pulling too much CO2 out of the atmosphere and the whole world is going to freeze.

[Moonman62]

In fact, he said, the new catalyst is 1,000 times faster than noble-metal catalysts—and about 20 times cheaper.

...

So how much for a gallon of fuel?

[Red Badger]

Sunlight plus air?

IT’S FREE!!!!!!!!!..........................................

[George from New England]

This must be a NASA funded, muslim outreach outcome !!

[Moonman62]

I don’t think the contraption and the chemicals (catalyst) that go into it are free. Real estate, maintenance, operation, transport and refining aren’t free either. Once again, how much for a gallon of fuel?

[wildbill]

OMG. Don’t these fools know that Carbon Dioxide is vital to all plant life on Earth. If we get a lot of machines sucking up all the carbon dioxide there will be a worldwide die-off of plants and then herbiferous animals and vegetarian humans.

Somebody has to pass a climate change law to stop them or without our arugula we’ll all die!

[jonrick46]

The essential catalyst for the process is tungsten diselenide. The abundance of tungsten in the Earth’s crust is thought to be about 1.5 parts per million. It is one of the more rare elements and most of it is mined in China, Russia, and Portugal. The United States has no tungsten mines.

The above tells me that these scientists are trolling for government grants for a solar cell scheme that is limited by the cost and availability of tungsten.

[Pollster1]

Perhaps, but Democrats don’t believe in the inventor of that fuel generator.

[mrsmith]

The House just passed a 150 million dollar a year grant to fund this research:
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr5638/text

Wondered what that was all about.

[Red Badger]

http://www.justtungsten.com/index.php?cPath=55&gclid=CPGXj8ifmc4CFdcUgQodJ8EJ_A

[Red Badger]

That remains to be seen................in 20-30 years........................

[RipSawyer]

Making fuel from CO2 might just be the worst possible source. REAL scientists often say that we need more carbon dioxide in the air to increase crop yields, not less. So far as I can determine, not being a scientist myself, it seems that a ten to one increase in CO2 levels would bring only beneficial results.

[PLMerite]

“Whoa! A coupl’a Muslims actually doing something useful and positiove? Boggles the mind!”

A self-arming IED.

[jonrick46]

With the price of tungsten, these yahoo scientists will be able to buy their interns diamonds and fancy get-a-way trips. That’s the ticket!

[Red Badger]

http://midwesttungsten.com/1-tungsten-cube/