Researchers to shed light on unique 'CO2 to fuel' process
This novel reactor and process could unlock a hugely significant source of carbon-neutral fuel - turning a climate-changing gas into a climate-saving fuel. Your home will be producing CO2 as it consumes energy, but that will be turned into natural gas by the reactor using water and sunlight - it's revolutionary.
A collaboration between Heriot-Watt University and the University of Warwick has been awarded a fellowship to develop unique sunlight and water-powered "reactors" for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the home and converting it to fuel.
Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer of the Centre for Innovation in Carbon Capture and Storage (CICCS) at Heriot-Watt and Professor Adam Lee from the University of Warwick were recently awarded the EPSRC Challenging Engineering Fellowship to focus on increasing the efficiency of photocatalytic reduction of CO2 - a process that uses solar energy to convert CO2 into fuels, such as methane and methanol.
CICCS director, Prof Maroto-Valer, said: "This novel reactor and process could unlock a hugely significant source of carbon-neutral fuel - turning a climate-changing gas into a climate-saving fuel. Your home will be producing CO‚‚ as it consumes energy, but that will be turned into natural gas by the reactor using water and sunlight - it's revolutionary."
The research project involves scientists based in Taiwan, the USA, Canada and China alongside leading industrial players, and is funded under the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, which is led by EPSRC.
News item courtesy of SCCS.org.uk