CO2 + SUN = CO + ENERGY

This is one of THOSE ideas. The ideas that lead to other ideas. The researchers admit it's 20 years away. At least nobody's building a highway for it. (Like the hydrogen highway? Another idea that's 20 years away...)

Sunshine to Petrol Project Seeks Fuel From Thin Air
December 8, 2007 (Sandia National Laboratories via Science Daily)

WHO
A research team from Sandia National Laboratories: inventor Rich Diver, coresearchers Jim E. Miller and Nathan Siegel, and Ellen B. Stechel (manager, Sandia’s Fuels and Energy Transitions Department)

The idea is pretty basic. The trick is finding a way to use the CO. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
“Sunshine to Petrol” (S2P): converting carbon dioxide into fuel from sunlight.
The Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5) will break a carbon-oxygen bond in the carbon dioxide to form carbon monoxide and oxygen. The carbon monoxide would be used to make hydrogen or serve as a building block in a liquid fuel such as methanol, gasoline, diesel or jet fuel.

WHEN
- Originally, the goal was to break water into hydrogen.
- In the last year, the chemistry of CO2 to CO with sun has been proved. Next comes a prototype.
- The prototype is expected to be finished in early 2008. Tests will follow.

WHERE
The first challenge is to effectively capture CO2 where it is generated: power plants.

WHY
- Funding comes from Sandia’s internal Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program and the Department of Defense Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
- With this technology, CO2 captured from “clean” coal technology could be used to create liquid fuels.
- Being able to generate liquid fuels excites people because they fit current infrastructures.

This is the guy and the machine he designed. How does it work? Good question. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Stechel, Sandia: “…Not only did we think it was possible, the team has developed a prototype that they fully anticipate will successfully break down carbon dioxide in a clever and viable two-step process…This invention, though probably a good 15 to 20 years away from being on the market, holds a real promise of being able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while preserving options to keep using fuels we know and love…Recycling carbon dioxide into fuels provides an attractive alternative to burying it.”
- Diver: “What’s exciting about this invention is that it will result in fossil fuels being used at least twice, meaning less carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere and a reduction of the rate that fossil fuels are pulled out of the ground…”
- Miller: “Our overall objective with this prototype is to demonstrate the practicality of the CR5 concept and to determine how test results from small-scale testing can be expanded to work in real devices…The design is conservative compared to what might eventually be developed.”
- Siegel: “We just now have to do it all in one continuous working device…”