Original publication: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ez4000059
Now, there are many implications to this sort of technology. For one instance (and being the most obvious one), processing plants with this technology are placed at every electric-generating facility and tap right into their exhaust lines, process the CO2 out, process it into a solution to generate electricity, and then send that electricity into the main grid for additional power. Another use would be to maybe have a miniaturized version of this technology equipped to cars, where it again taps into the exhaust line and gives the car additional electricity, possibly creating a better, more efficient hybrid.
What we have here is a proposed way of making carbon dioxide useful. All that gas exhumed from the factories, coal processing plants and residential areas that is all harmful to our environment is now being considered a possible source of energy. Who would've ever thought? Well, let's take a look into this, shall we?
Bert Hamelers, Ph.D. looks to be the project lead for this research. According to Dr. Hamelers and his colleagues, dozens of tons of CO2 is wasted from electric-generating infrastructure and heating in both residential and business locations. What they describe is a technology that would take this CO2 gas and react it with liquids and with further processing to generate electrical current. In Dr. Hamelers abstract of his paper on this research, he describes the simplified process proposed to harvest this energy current resultant, using "pairs of porous electrodes, one selective for anions and the other selective for cations." (Hamelers). The result was a positive gain of energy when the solution was passed through these porous electrodes.
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Now, there are many implications to this sort of technology. For one instance (and being the most obvious one), processing plants with this technology are placed at every electric-generating facility and tap right into their exhaust lines, process the CO2 out, process it into a solution to generate electricity, and then send that electricity into the main grid for additional power. Another use would be to maybe have a miniaturized version of this technology equipped to cars, where it again taps into the exhaust line and gives the car additional electricity, possibly creating a better, more efficient hybrid.
Not only would we be utilizing one of the biggest by-products of humanity, but we would also be cutting down our environmental impact tremendously. The key here is what is with most new technologies of this magnitude; scalability. Right now, this seems to be working in the lab, which is the first step. Now, they must work towards scaling this up to a larger size, and then an even large size from that. If this becomes viable, then this will shake up the entire energy sector of the world, and might even become a disruptive technology that could see some serious opposition from the big industry. I for one hope to see this become a reality.
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