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EPSRC Funds CO2 to Methane and Methanol Project
11 March 2008
The UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is providing £167,530 (US$336,000) in funding for an 18-month research project that aims to develop an efficient, inexpensive aerogel photocatalytic diode that will reduce carbon dioxide and generate methane and methanol for use as fuels. The project begins 1 April 2008.
The project, left by Professor Andrew Mills at the University of Strathclyde, is in partnership with Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemical company with skills in catalysts, precious metals, fine chemicals and process technology.
The researchers plan to develop visible light-absorbing, high-surface area, anion-doped, titania photocatalytic monoliths to mediate the reduction of CO2 to methanol and/or methane with an efficiency of greater than 10%, using high levels of CO2 and selective catalysts (such as Cu metal deposits).
The work’s novelty is in the separation of the reduced carbon fuel/oxygen evolution events to the separate, opposing sides of a robust, inorganic, inexpensive photocatalytic membrane (the aerogel photodiode), thereby minimizing, if not eliminating, the various efficiency-lowering recombination reactions, according to the researchers.
The research has two main components: (1) the preparation of new photocatalyst materials in aerogel form; and (2) the utilization of nanoparticulate metal catalysts. The project will focus on generating methane and methanol by using nanoparticulate metals on the CO2 side of the photocatalyst monolith known to favor their production in the electrochemical reduction of CO2.
At the end of the 18-month project, the researchers intend to construct demonstrators of the best monoliths to promote further investment in a subsequent phase of the work—i.e., scale-up and advanced prototype development of the monolithic photocatalyst aerogel diode technology.
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March 11, 2008 in Catalysts, Climate Change, Emissions, Methanol, Natural Gas | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments
Sounds very ambitious to me. Green plants can use only ~2% of incident light, so 10% would presumably only be possible at elevated temperatures.
Exactly how this is supposed to work is a bit of a mystery, though: both CO2 and H2O would need to be stripped of oxygen on one side of the aerogel membrane and then, the carbon and hydrogen would have to somehow tunnel through to the other. Hydrogen tunneling I can envision. Carbon tunneling, not so much.
Posted by: Rafael Seidl | Mar 11, 2008 9:53:27 AM
Algae under High CO2 Atmosphere manages 7%, most trestial plants do ~.5%. The goals are very VERY ambitious, I would not be surprised if it takes them 20 years.
Posted by: Ben | Mar 11, 2008 10:10:29 AM
what vehicles run on methanol or methane? Are there any and who makes them I wonder?
Posted by: Walt | Mar 11, 2008 11:45:56 AM
what vehicles run on methanol or methane? Are there any and who makes them I wonder?
Posted by: Walt | Mar 11, 2008 11:46:45 AM
I do not understand the purpose of this exercise. Even if they were successful, and produces the fuel end product, wouldn't the fuel be burned again, and emit the same amount of CO2?
I think it is more promising to make fertilizers from CO2 or CO.
Posted by: Lulu | Mar 11, 2008 11:51:56 AM
Walt,
Methane is the main component of natural gas. There are some 150,000 cars in the U.S. and a lot more in Europe that can run on NG.
Flexible Fuel Cars (FFVs) can conceivably run on methanol as well as ethanol, but not necessarily. There are about 4 million FFVs in the U.S.
By the time they get this working, if ever, there will probably be fuel cells that can run on either methane or methanol and get more than twice the mileage that internal combustion engines now.
Posted by: sjc | Mar 11, 2008 12:27:24 PM
As a follow up to SJC's comment, natural gas (methane) is used to make fertilizer.
About plant's photo efficiency: most plants utilize a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum though their efficiency is rated on incident light (I believe its a portion of green light and part of near infared, validation would be the spurt of LED growth lights that only use green and red diodes). Plants, unlike the above catalyst doped zeolites, must perform life support functions further reducing their net efficiency.
Posted by: GreenPlease | Mar 11, 2008 4:54:37 PM
Lulu, the point is, if make artificial vehicle fuels from atmospheric CO2, you get no net increase in atmospheric CO2 when those fuels are burned (assuming, as here, a non-fossil energy source for the process).
Posted by: richard schumacher | Mar 11, 2008 6:06:54 PM
You could grow miscanthus, burn it to get the source CO2, and then bury any resulting char to be carbon negative.
Posted by: GreenPlease | Mar 12, 2008 7:10:48 AM
Lots of CO2 sources. Fermentation generates lots of it. So, if you take the cellulose with enzymes, whether elephant grass or prairie grass and ferment the sugars you get CO2 as part of the process. Use that new CO2 in anything you want, including more SNG using solar hydrogen.
Posted by: sjc | Mar 13, 2008 10:52:53 AM
CO2 is a substantial fraction of landfill gas and biogas from anaerobic digesters. It is also a byproduct of many waste disposal processes, such as Zegen's gasifier. If the carbon from such processes can all be turned into useful products, it's a big advance.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | Mar 13, 2008 9:52:48 PM
Also the cement industry is a huge CO2 producer.
(most part of cement is CaO. It is made by heating CaCO3 --> CaO + CO2)
Posted by: Alain | Mar 14, 2008 11:54:44 AM
