How Israel could save the planet

IF YOU believe that global warming is the biggest threat facing humanity, one Israeli company may be about to save the world.

New CO2 Fuels, based near Tel Aviv, says it has cracked the problem of turning carbon emissions into fuel — and that it can make the process profitable.

Energy entrepreneurs are desperate to find economical ways not only of neutralising CO2 emissions but also producing something useful with them, without costing a fortune.

The company aims to collect CO2 from big emitters such as steel plants and, employing research by the Weizmann Institute, “recycle” it into fuel or use it to produce plastics or fertilisers.

“A steel plant could provide fuel for thousands of cars a year,” said David Banitt, CEO of New CO2 Fuels. “Instead of cars burning fossil fuel, they could burn recycled fuel,” he said.

Mr Banitt revealed that his company would run pilot programmes in Israel and one European country, starting in two years. He claimed that his technology could help to restore the natural balance of CO2 in the environment.

New CO2 Fuels uses very high tem- peratures for the separation of carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen. That mixture, according to Mr Banitt, is “a gas known as syngas and there are lots of people around the world who know how to convert it into methanol, ethanol, gasoline, kerosene ammonia, urea, plastics, you name it”.

To keep the process economical and environmentally friendly, the heat for that process can come from places that are generating heat and not using it, such as production plants.

“The best thing possible is to take these emissions and turn them back into a useful product,” said Mr Banitt.