Contender 6: Use Catalysts and Nanotubes to turn CO2 back into HydroCarbon fuel

Contender 6: Use Catalysts and Nanotubes to turn
CO2 back into HydroCarbon fuel

Solar alchemy turns fumes back into fuels
by Rob Edwards

NewScientist.com news service
16 September 2006

Chemists have long hoped to find a method
of bringing the combustion of fuel full circle
by turning CO2 back into useful hydrocarbons.

Now researchers at the University of Messina in Italy
have developed an electro-catalytic technique
they say could do the job. "The conversion of CO2 to fuel
is not a dream, but an effective possibility
which requires further research," says team leader Gabriele Centi.

The researchers chemically reduced CO2
to produce eight and nine-carbon hydrocarbons
using a catalyst of particles of platinum and palladium
confined in carbon nanotubes. These hydrocarbons
can be made into petrol and diesel.

To begin with, the researchers used sunlight
plus a thin film of titanium dioxide to act as
a photocatalyst to split water into oxygen gas
plus protons and electrons. These are then
carried off separately, via a proton membrane
and wire respectively, before being combined with CO2
plus the nano-catalyst to produce the hydrocarbons

Research at the University of Messina in Italy

Max Planck Institute in Germany, the Louis Pasteur University in France, and others, following up on the Research at the University of Messina in Italy