Can you split carbon dioxide

Using liquid metal and electricity, dissolved CO2 transforms into solid flakes of carbon. The process could be used in combination with new machines that suck CO2 out of the atmosphere. If CO2 turns into a solid, it can be safely stored.

The new process can happen at room temperature. But the process can run on renewable energy. One such industrial application could be set up at the Climeworks plant in Zurich in Switzerland, where scientists are aiming to capture carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into fertiliser. If experts can figure out a way to effectively trap the CO2 that's being pulled in, then we now have a way of turning that into fuel very efficiently.

We've got a long way to go before we can be confident of slowing the changes that are happening to our planet, but developments like this give us hope for the future.

By continuing without changing your cookie settings, you agree to this collection. For more information, please see our University Websites Privacy Notice. A new discovery could make it possible to economically turn carbon dioxide into fuels. A discovery by a team of researchers could make it more feasible to turn carbon dioxide into fuels. Courtesy of Steve Suib. The discovery could make it possible to economically turn carbon dioxide into fuels.

Consider the proposal as a chemical reaction: CO 2 plus energy yields carbon and oxygen. This formula essentially reverses coal combustion carbon plus oxygen yields CO 2 and energy. If energy from coal were applied to drive the decomposition reaction, more CO 2 would be released than consumed, because no process is perfectly efficient. Another option would be to harness a carbon-free energy source to drive a reaction that does not merely undo the combustion process but instead uses carbon dioxide as an input to generate useful, energy-rich products.

At Sandia National Laboratories, we are working to apply concentrated sunlight to drive high-temperature thermal reactions that yield carbon monoxide, hydrogen and oxygen from CO 2 and water.

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