Gasoline is about to appear CO2, walkways for traditional gasoline?

This is a great idea in the model of "win-win" by this process can both reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has produced biofuels environmentally friendly.

Emissions from the industry is a problem

The development of the industry on the one hand as a lever to help humanity move forward, on the other hand leave negative consequences, notably the increase in CO2 causes the greenhouse effect. There were so many measures in place from simple as planting trees to promote the industry environmentally friendly.

In a few years, the scientists put a lot of attention to the idea of transforming CO2 into methanol. This is a great idea in the model of "win-win" by this process can both reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has produced biofuels environmentally friendly. However, so far not a technological process that can achieve significant conversion efficiency.

Scientists at the Laboratory Argonne National Energy is focusing on a new material of Copper can make technology CO2 into methanol conversion higher efficiency, can be applied in practice.

The new material is called Dong tetramer. According to scientists new material structure "includes small clusters formed from four copper atoms on a thin film of aluminum oxide." They will act as a catalyst for the reaction converting CO2 into methanol. CO2 molecules can be linked to the copper atom clusters and "we will be guided by an ideal way to chemical reactions take place."

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4 copper atom clusters form on aluminum oxide layer

This new model achieve considerably higher performance than today's industrial processes use catalysts from a mixture of zinc oxide and aluminum oxide. In some older models of the atomic nature only serves to keep stable compounds linked together. While the model At the tetramer all copper atoms can join catalyze the reaction. We have the ability to create links easily with CO2 molecules, thus not requiring a high pressure for the process and reduce energy consumption.

So far, the technology with this new material is still in the testing phase. In laboratory conditions, only the material sample at nanometer size generated form. Scientists will need to deploy them in a larger scale. At the same time research also opens new opportunities to seek more effective catalyst than the Dong tetramer.

In the future, when the successful test and apply in practice, this will be one of the most effective technologies contribute to solving the problem of greenhouse gases for humanity. However, while waiting for the great technology and promising, we still should minimize the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere by all possible measures for a sustainable future.