Instead of sequestering carbon dioxide to reduce its effects on global climate, why don’t we split it into harmless carbon and oxygen?
—J. Henderson, Devon, Pa.James E. Miller,?a chemical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, breaks it down:
Splitting carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbon and oxygen can in fact be accomplished, but there is a catch: doing so requires energy…
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…
Why not split harmful carbon dioxide into harmless carbon and oxygen?: Scientific American.
Obviously, once energy systems include substantial energy storage systems and much of the energy is from renewable sources, surplus energy – perhaps a small fixed percentage of renewable energy or redundant stored energy that would otherwise be idle or wasted – could be put to splitting CO2 from the atmosphere or used to break down stored CO2 waste from coal power stations. Energy systems will be completely transformed with new energy storage systems, renewable sources and smart grid integration.
The majority of CO2 comes from burning fuels to provide electricity or propulsion. It then seems somewhat silly to use excess electricity to try to break CO2 back into C and O2. If the amount of energy needed was the same as was given to create the CO2, then it may be worth it. But when fuels combust, such as coal burning, the energy transfer to the turbines in the power station is not 100% or even close to it.
Hi Roger,
I agree. So we need to invest in renewable sources of energy, energy storage systems and coordinate it all with a smart grid. Once such a system is widely installed it would make sense to use surplus stored energy – from non-coal renewable sources – to split carbon dioxide. A reliable energy system that depended on a large storage capacity is likely to have some surplus or redundant energy that could be put into splitting CO2 – at least in principle. The technology still needs to be designed and tested. If we can demonstrate that these systems will be economically profitable then we may see some R&D and investment into the ideas.