Process could drop CO2 levels to pre-industrial levels

[rhoenix]

[quote="PhysOrg"]By using the sun's visible light and heat to power an electrolysis cell that captures and converts carbon dioxide from the air, a new technique could impressively clean the atmosphere and produce fuel feedstock at the same time. The key advantage of the new solar carbon capture process is that it simultaneously uses the solar visible and solar thermal components, whereas the latter is usually regarded as detrimental due to the degradation that heat causes to photovoltaic materials. However, the new method uses the sun’s heat to convert more solar energy into carbon than either photovoltaic or solar thermal processes alone.

The new process, called Solar Thermal Electrochemical Photo (STEP) carbon capture, was recently suggested theoretically by a team of scientists from George Washington University and Howard University, both in Washington, DC. Now, in a paper just published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, the scientists have experimentally demonstrated the STEP process for the first time.

“The significance of the study is twofold,â€

[frigidmagi]

I have no such worries. Vaccum cleaner or not, there are still enough problems to keep the environmentalist screaming and there is still only a limited amount of oil in the world.

We'll have to switch to new fuels one way or another.

[Mayabird]

The thing is, I've read about lots of supposed silver bullets, once. If I do hear about them again, it's them admitting that they haven't been able to scale the process up to industrial levels from their little lab setup. Presumably, the rest of them are the same way but without admitting it. Sure, it'd be great if one of them could work, but I'm not going to pin any hopes on any of them until something shows real progress.