Public Release: 19-Jan-2019
Scientists turn carbon emissions into usable energy
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST)
IMAGE: This is a schematic illustration of Hybrid Na-CO2 System and its reaction mechanism. view more
Credit: UNIST
A recent study, affiliated with UNIST has developed a system that produces electricity and hydrogen (H2) while eliminating carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the main contributor of global warming.
Published This breakthrough has been led by Professor Guntae Kim in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST in collaboration with Professor Jaephil Cho in the Department of Energy Engineering and Professor Meilin Liu in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.
In this work, the research team presented Hybrid Na-CO2 system that can continuously produce electrical energy and hydrogen through efficient CO2 conversion with stable operation for over 1,000 hr from spontaneous CO2 dissolution in aqueous solution.
“Carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) technologies have recently received a great deal of attention for providing a pathway in dealing with global climate change,” says Professor Kim. “The key to that technology is the easy conversion of chemically stable CO2 molecules to other materials.” He adds, “Our new system has solved this problem with CO2 dissolution mechanism.”
Much of human CO2 emissions are absorbed by the ocean and turned into acidity. The researchers focused on this phenomenon and came up with the idea of melting CO2 into water to induce an electrochemical reaction. If acidity increases, the number of protons increases, which in turn increases the power to attract electrons. If a battery system is created based on this phenomenon, electricity can be produced by removing CO2.
Their Hybrid Na-CO2 System, just like a fuel cell, consists of a cathode (sodium metal), separator (NASICON), and anode (catalyst). Unlike other batteries, catalysts are contained in water and are connected by a lead wire to a cathode. When CO2 is injected into the water, the entire reaction gets started, eliminating CO2 and creating electricity and H2. At this time, the conversion efficiency of CO2 is high at 50%.
“This hybrid Na-CO2 cell, which adopts efficient CCUS technologies, not only utilizes CO2 as the resource for generating electrical energy but also produces the clean energy source, hydrogen,” says Jeongwon Kim in the Combined M.S/Ph.D. in Energy Engineering at UNIST, the co-first author for the research.
In particular, this system has shown stability to the point of operating for more than 1,000 hours without damage to electrodes. The system can be applied to remove CO2 by inducing voluntary chemical reactions.
“This research will lead to more derived research and will be able to produce H2 and electricity more effectively when electrolytes, separator, system design, and electrocatalysts are improved,” said Professor Kim.###
Journal Reference
Changmin Kim et. al., “Efficient CO2 Utilization via a Hybrid Na-CO2 System Based on CO2 Dissolution,” iScience, (2018).
From EurekAlert!
HT/David B
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I wouldn’t want to get into a serious accident with a car that filled up at an H2 station.
Hydrogen fuel isn’t as dangerous as you’d imagine. It’s about as dangerous as compressed natural gas when stored in cylinders (of course it is much harder to contain in cylinders). The cylinders will not explode when punctured (they’ll rupture but no explosion). The internal compressed H2 must mix enough with surrounding air as it spews out. This will cause the combustible mixture to be well away from the tank if it ignites.
Much of the fire from the Hindenburg was actually diesel fuel and burning outer skin which was lacquer coated.
One day, we will laugh at these Climate Change Alarmists.
I am reminded of the Blackadder series where Percy turns his hand to alchemy in order to make gold. he claims success and shows his work to Blackadder who immediately puts Percy right telling him what he has actually made is, purest Green.
The Green movement and Climate Change Alarmists are devoted to the same mindset. They are constantly working on impossible dreams, claiming success yet they only manage to produce a splat of purest green.
Google purest green and Blackadder.
So, is the notion to reduce GHG emissions an impossible dream? If let’s say the National Academy of Sciences statement ends up to be correct, there would be no way to meet their recommendations for something like 80% worldwide reductions by 2050?
Yes, the idea of reducing green house gas emissions is an impossible dream The prime green house gas is water vapour, how do they suggest reducing that? The second green house gas player is CO2 but it is produced naturally by biological processes, not to mention respiration by humans.
It is also so beneficial to the environment,why anyone would actively want to reduce it is a mystery in the first place.
Perhaps maintaining a steady as she goes attitude, does not garner any grant money from the tax payers so we have to be seen to be doing something, no matter how pointless it all is..
Its just a “Make work scheme”. Include the magic words carbon and CO2, and sit back and wait for the grant money to commence.
MJE
Oh my gosh. I am an electrochemist. I’ve never seen Snip in my field like this before. Despite the fact that you only get an equivalent of water for the CO2 (a “stronger greenhouse gas”), even despite the fact of enormous need of energy to make sodium, it’s all garbage. in the picture Na is anode (which material is the cathode, Li?), it appears in the description as a cathode). The diffusion of Na ions is funny. A dalton element does not work that way. There is no diffusion through ions, so it builds up an electronic potential. This snip uses the same tricks as the cold Fusion guys. (Googlag Rossi). Pls. excuse,my hasty poor denglish.
stob, we don’t allow profanity on the site. Mod
sry for my profanity. germans speak and think like this. i cant promise this will never happen again, but i will try. i guess the most of you will know, which word i was using.
CTM,
Could we please have a hiatus, or better yet a permanent ban, on any “News” claiming to convert CO2 into fuel, or hydrogen, or gasoline, or any energy source whatsoever?
Can you burn the ashes in your fireplace? No you cannot, already burned, all the energy has already been taken out.
There have been dozens of these articles here on WUWT, each more foolish than the last.
Enough already!!!
The only current applicable application I can see for this is for manufacturing Hydrogen for rocket fuel on Mars. Assuming it is possible and economically viable to manufacture the sodium metal on the red planet. And electricity as a by product to the entire process. But it will take a lot of energy to ‘mine’ and manufacture the sodium metal cathode on Mars. Since Mars had ancient oceans, it isn’t unreasonable to expect to find enough salt to manufacture the sodium metal. The question is whether this process would be simplistic enough and cheaper than just manufacturing hydrogen using electricity, assuming we can generate electricity in enough quantity somehow on Mars to manufacture hydrogen for rocket fuel.
Total speculation on my part regarding viability on Mars, but I don’t see an application on Earth, unless the sodium metal was used in say an electric train or bus, and generated hydrogen on demand from a tank of water. There is a lot of salt on our planet, but not sure if manufacturing sodium metal from salt makes economic sense for domestic use here. Having read the article and all the comments, it doesn’t appear to make sense here on Earth just because the energy input to manufacture the sodium metal is more costly than just using that same energy in the first place.