‘ New method to turn atmospheric CO2 into fuel’

Boston, June 8: Harvard researchers have found a cost- effective way to remove emitted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and turn it into fuel. Direct air capture technology works through giant fans drawing ambient air into contact with an aqueous solution that picks and traps carbon dioxide. Through heating and a handful of familiar chemical reactions, that carbon dioxide is re- extracted and can be used as a carbon source for making valuable chemicals like fuels or for storage via a sequestration strategy. Scientists from Harvard University in the US and Carbon Engineering, a Canadian CO2- capture and clean fuels enterprise, is already achieving both CO2 capture and fuel generation. The technology will soon be able to produce gasoline and jet fuel from little more than limestone, hydrogen, and air, researchers said. It aims at the eventual construction of a vast, industrial- scale network of carbon scrubbers, capable of removing greenhouse gases directly from the atmosphere. “Electricity from solar and wind is intermittent. We can take this energy straight from big solar or wind installations at great sites where it’s cheap and apply it to reclaim and recycle carbon dioxide into new fuel,” said David Keith, a professor at Harvard University. “Making fuels that are easy to store and transport eases the challenge of integrating renewable into the energy system,” said Keith.