Author Topic: Scientists Accidentally Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 Into Ethanol  (Read 5267 times)

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Offline Idaho_Cowboy

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Scientists Accidentally Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 Into Ethanol
The process is cheap, efficient, and scalable, meaning it could soon be used to remove large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.
By Avery Thompson
Oct 17, 2016

Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have discovered a chemical reaction to turn CO2 into ethanol, potentially creating a new technology to help avert climate change. Their findings were published in the journal ChemistrySelect.

The researchers were attempting to find a series of chemical reactions that could turn CO2 into a useful fuel, when they realized the first step in their process managed to do it all by itself. The reaction turns CO2 into ethanol, which could in turn be used to power generators and vehicles....
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a23417/convert-co2-into-ethanol/
Video at link
I guess we will see how this pans out, seems to good to be true.
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Could be interesting. 

Offline andy58-in-nh

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I'll drink to that. :beer:
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Offline r9etb

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I guess we will see how this pans out, seems to good to be true.

They're onto us, Clem...


Offline r9etb

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I guess we will see how this pans out, seems to good to be true.

Here's the paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/slct.201601169/full

Seems legit -- nano-spike carbon/copper catalyst.  Not free, but significantly more efficient.

Offline LateForLunch

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Violates Exclusionary Principle of Governance

   The EPG states that anything which is cost effective, affordable, efficient, has few negative elements and many positive ones and doesn't harm anyone or anything, is automatically excluded from consideration by government.
   You think that I'm joking, but I'm not.
   That is what the AGW fanatics don't get. Since the AGW movement is not and has never been about reducing average climatic temperature (since they know that elevated carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere is an after-effect of warming not the cause) but about using AGW as an EXCUSE for increasing government control and establishing a revenue stream for leftists - the ecoparanoids who run the AGW scam will NEVER permit a solution to the so-called "problem" of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

First and foremost, once the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere was reduced and temperatures CONTINUED to rise, the whole scam going back to its genesis in the sick mind of algore, would be revealed.

That would open algore and others to endless lawsuits for fraud, and permanently discredit countless leftist politicians who have built careers pedaling ecoparanoia to their constituents.

Second, the far left would lose a prime political talking point with which to bludgeon their opponents over the head - that conservatives and other non-leftists are "destroying the planet" (i.e., are bad people) so they should not be given political power.

Third, the push to gradually and increasingly usurp power from the private sector and enlarge government power/authority to regulate (control) the population with endless restrictions would be imperiled. As Michael Crichton pointed out in his anti-AGW book State of Fear, the far left and its allies needs the world's population to be in a perpetual state of fear, so that they will readily accept whatever insane, Draconian tyranny Statists impose upon them "for their own good". Without some "crisis" from which to "save" them, the People of the world would soon think that they didn't need bigger and bigger, more and more powerful government to "help" them and would insist on smaller, more efficient, less-corrupt governance.

I predict that if this technology turns out to be the real deal it will be made to disappear and the people who have created it will either be bought off, intimidated or murdered into silence permanently.

Make no mistake, the ecoparanoia movement is HUGE business and power brokers. They will not sit idly by and allow some scientist to ruin everything they have worked for over the decades without a serious fight.
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Offline driftdiver

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I guess we will see how this pans out, seems to good to be true.

Evil stuff CO2, they should get rid of all of it.
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Offline Free Vulcan

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Evil stuff CO2, they should get rid of all of it.

That and dihydrogen monoxide.
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Online LadyLiberty

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Ethanol from CO2.  There goes big corn.

Offline thackney

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I guess we will see how this pans out, seems to good to be true.

Just chemistry.  But it still takes more energy to produce the ethanol than the ethanol can release in combustion.  This could effectively become a battery, but it still has losses.

63% efficiency is not going to make a major impact to fuel supply.
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Offline Free Vulcan

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Ethanol from CO2.  There goes big corn.

Big corn needs to adapt and produce other products, and it can if it chooses.
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Offline GrouchoTex

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That and dihydrogen monoxide.

Makes me thirsty just thinking about it.

Offline LateForLunch

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Makes me thirsty just thinking about it.

For those is Rio Linda, dihydrogen monoxide is (wait for it)  H2O aka "water".
« Last Edit: October 18, 2016, 06:51:00 pm by LateForLunch »
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Offline Dexter

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Color me skeptically hopeful.
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Just chemistry.  But it still takes more energy to produce the ethanol than the ethanol can release in combustion.  This could effectively become a battery, but it still has losses.

63% efficiency is not going to make a major impact to fuel supply.

True enough, but as I understand it, the energy input could come from electricity generated with solar panels, which is a relatively clean input.

Offline r9etb

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True enough, but as I understand it, the energy input could come from electricity generated with solar panels, which is a relatively clean input.

Right.  Or, you could use thermocouples on the hot side of a power plant and use the power to make enough hooch for the office Christmas party.

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Right.  Or, you could use thermocouples on the hot side of a power plant and use the power to make enough hooch for the office Christmas party.

:thumbsup:

Offline Free Vulcan

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Right.  Or, you could use thermocouples on the hot side of a power plant and use the power to make enough hooch for the office Christmas party.

Hey, it's a start!  :beer:
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Offline RoosGirl

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Why do I only see this turning into another reason for the gov't to impose more crazy environmental regulations forcing us to capture every speck of CO2 we create?

Offline Frank Cannon

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Scientists Accidentally Discover Efficient Process to Turn CO2 Into Ethanol


Big deal. I can turn Burger King onion rings into methane in less than an hour.


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I do not think the author understands the word "efficient".

Offline 240B

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turn air into whiskey?

Ok, I'm good with that, I guess? I don't know?
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Just chemistry.  But it still takes more energy to produce the ethanol than the ethanol can release in combustion.  This could effectively become a battery, but it still has losses.

63% efficiency is not going to make a major impact to fuel supply.
Maybe not, but given the right electrode and a battery, though the Coca Cola will be flat, it'll have some kick...
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Could be interesting.

But sadly, I will predict it has nothing to do with running corn likker through a hillbilly...

Offline EC

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Just chemistry.  But it still takes more energy to produce the ethanol than the ethanol can release in combustion.  This could effectively become a battery, but it still has losses.

63% efficiency is not going to make a major impact to fuel supply.

Not even with the feedstock being free?

I'm more interested in it's use in terraforming. Got Venus sitting right over there - same size, same gravity. Perfect, other than it's atmosphere, in other words.
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