New Sunlight Reactor Produces Fuel 269
eldavojohn writes "A new reactor developed by CalTech shows promise for producing renewable fuel from sunlight. The reactor hinges on a metal oxide named Ceria that has very interesting properties at very high temperatures. It exhales oxygen at very high temperatures and inhales oxygen at very low temperatures. From the article, 'Specifically, the inhaled oxygen is stripped off of carbon dioxide (CO2) and/or water (H2O) gas molecules that are pumped into the reactor, producing carbon monoxide (CO) and/or hydrogen gas (H2). H2 can be used to fuel hydrogen fuel cells; CO, combined with H2, can be used to create synthetic gas, or "syngas," which is the precursor to liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Adding other catalysts to the gas mixture, meanwhile, produces methane. And once the ceria is oxygenated to full capacity, it can be heated back up again, and the cycle can begin anew.' The only other piece of the puzzle is a large sunlight concentrator to raise the temperature to the necessary 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The team is working on modifying and refining the reactor to require a lower temperature to achieve the two-step thermochemical cycle. Another issue is the heat loss which the team claims could be reduced to improve efficiency to 15% or higher. Since CO2 is an input, the possibility exists for coal and power plants to collect CO2 emissions to be used in this process which would effectively allow us to "use the carbon twice." Another idea listed is that a "zero CO2 emissions" is developed along these lines: 'H2O and CO2 would be converted to methane, would fuel electricity-producing power plants that generate more CO2 and H2O, to keep the process going.' The team's work was published last month in Science."
Headline! (Score:5, Funny)
4th Time This Month
Alternate idea (Score:5, Funny)
I've discovered a system that allows sunlight, groundwater, airborne CO2, and a few other elements to be converted into substances which can easily be used for heating fuel, building materials, and even in some cases food. It's really amazing, and costs relatively little to set up and even less to maintain. It's also aesthetically pleasing, so you get very little complaint from the NIMBY crowd. In fact, this system is so simple that you'll often find it in the front and back yards of ordinary single-family homes, apartment buildings, and office complexes.
Not that this idea isn't potentially nifty, of course.
Re:CalTech? (Score:0, Funny)
It's mainly produced by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH in Zürich) and built at the PSI (a research facility near Zürich). Ya, there are also some CalTech guys participating.
It's nice to know that there's some nutjobs in Europe that are just as patriotic as the nutjobs in the American South.
Re:Why bother? (Score:4, Funny)
You would think with someone who can manage to type out the chemical chain you would know the sun doesn't shine at night. SO you need to STORE the energy.
But no, you go on poo-pooing the idea without bothering to think in any logical or rational manner. We certainly don't have enough people like that already~
Have you considered working for Glen Beck?
Re:Equal parts excitement and antipathy (Score:3, Funny)
Or we could stick tubes up Cow's asses to harvest methane.
Re:Re-re-re-repost! (Score:5, Funny)
This reactor produces one of the most important components of a Hydrogen Bomb, and thus should be banned! And everybody knows that reactors are evil, and will cause the China Syndrome (whatever that is), which will kill us all. Reactors are well known to explode in a nuclear conflagration, as well as poisoning everyone within a 1000 mile radius before they do!
Of course environmentalists are going to hate this.
Re:Equal parts excitement and antipathy (Score:5, Funny)
gasp, or wait until they build better reactors, or gasp, wait until they scale to MW size reactors, or gasp, use it in places where turbines make no sense, or gasp, use it in addition to turbines.
oh my god, he's being asphyxiated from the device's CO2 emissions! someone help!
Re:Nuclear (Score:2, Funny)
Building nuclear reactors and dealing with the waste ain't like dustin' crops, boy!