Waste not, want not – carbon dioxide as fuel

Transportation accounts for over 35 per cent of Canada’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s not surprising that when we start talking about reducing emissions, we start talking about our cars. But imagine: what if the cars we drove were actually using the CO2 we put into the atmosphere instead of releasing more? That’s the question that a team of scientists and engineers from a trio of UK universities are asking, and they think they might well find an answer.

Collaborating with the University of the West of England, the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, a team of scientists and engineers are trying to create nanomaterials capable of trapping some of the thousands of megatonnes of GHG released into the atmosphere every year. (Globally, Canada accounts for two per cent of consumption-related emissions.) Once captured, this carbon dioxide could be split into its constituent elements, which could then theoretically be converted into fuel.

Similar to carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies that aim to capture carbon at its point of release, the goal of this research would be to create porous materials capable of lining factory chimneys and trapping carbon dioxide for later use. And while the team’s efforts are currently focused on the nanomaterials capable of trapping the suspect carbon dioxide, it isn’t the first attempt to create make our wasted emissions into useful energy either.

In 2007, scientists at the University of California, San Diego demonstrated a prototype capable of “splitting” carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen.  And while carbon dioxide is toxic, it can be converted into fuel. With other applications including detergent and plastics, making more of wasted emissions simply makes sense.

Turning unwanted emissions into useful products belongs to an entire area of technological development that sees scientists looking for “fresh” applications of waste. And with consumers increasingly concerned about the costs of energy, both financial and environmental, it’s not hard to imagine a market for fuel made from the same emissions we’re trying to reduce. Waste not, want not.