Carbon dioxide: A new material for energy storage
http://eqonlinenews.com/2018/07/03/carbon-dioxide-a-new-material-for-energy-storage/
How to reduce the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? How to dispose of surplus electricity from renewable sources?
The problem of the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has been of concern to scientists for a long time. The greatest concern is caused by carbon dioxide, since its contribution to the global greenhouse effect is second only to the contribution of water vapor. And it does not even matter if it’s about anthropogenic emissions, that is, those caused by human activities, or about natural sources of СО2 emissions – after all, increasing its content in the atmosphere in any case contributes to global warming, and with this something need to do!
But the problem is that carbon dioxide molecules have very low chemical activity, and in order to get them to react with other substances, you need to spend a fair amount of energy. Therefore, up to now, all the thoughts and efforts of the researchers have been aimed, basically, at finding a way of long-term removal of surplus carbon dioxide from the natural carbon cycle. Bury them, say, in the world’s oceans, accumulate in soil and forests, pump into abandoned mines and so on.
Two problems – one solution
However, now – thanks to the work of a group of American chemists – before ecologists, climatologists, and at the same time, energy specialists opened up entirely new prospects. Because the technology developed by Stanford University professor Matthew Kanan and his colleagues not only makes it possible to turn harmful CO2 emissions into something useful and even valuable, but also facilitates the transition from traditional hydrocarbon energy to green energy.
