You’ve heard of the many ways of dealing with the plethora of CO2 emissions: reforestation, CO2 capturing and soil sequestering, switching to bio fuels and what have you. However, we bet that you haven’t heard of this new Ethanol strategy!
CO2 Ethanol is the new way of getting rid of the excess CO2 we’ve been struggling with. In humanity’s ongoing efforts to lower the carbon dioxide emissions, a group of scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found a way to turn atmospheric CO2 into ethanol using nothing more than the power of the sun. According to the scientists, “the researchers did this by optimizing each component of a photovoltaic-electrochemical system to reduce voltage loss, and creating new materials when existing ones did not suffice.” They also made it so that their program would work even when it wasn’t sunny out.
Why Ethanol?
Ethanol, also called alcohol or drinking alcohol, is a compound and simple alcohol. It is a flammable, colorless liquid that has many uses: as a drug and and as the principal type of alcohol found in alcoholic drinks. It also has medical applications as an antiseptic and disinfectant.
Fermenting of sugars by yeasts or other processes provides us with Ethanol in a natural way. Most of the Ethanol in the United States is made from corn and while that might bring in good revenue, why not double its benefits and make it from the pre-existing carbon dioxide that is polluting our atmosphere instead? Also, then it would be used as a clean energy burning fuel source and it would be a win-win for everyone! We bet those were the exact thoughts for the Berkley scientists when they decided to embark on this experiment.
If you’d like to know more of the details of the experiment, visit the Berkley scientists’ website: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017
Thank you for reading! What are you thoughts on this new way of dealing with CO2? Let us know in the comments below!
Related:
Why We Owe Our Life To CO2 & Methane