So Sunlight Can Convert Methane and CO2 Into Fuel and Valuable Chemicals, But Don't Think That Will Stop Fossil Fuel Haters!
A new study out of McGill University tells good old sunlight can be used to convert your car exhaust CO2 and methane into methanol fuel and other valuable products. The story is told here and the following are the key points:
Researchers at McGill University have developed a method to convert two of the most damaging greenhouse gases into valuable chemicals using sunlight. This breakthrough could both address climate change and offer a sustainable alternative for manufacturing some industrial products.
“Imagine a world where the exhaust from your car or emissions from a factory could be transformed, with the help of sunlight, into clean fuel for vehicles, the building blocks for everyday plastics, and energy stored in batteries,” said co-first author Hui Su, a Postdoctoral Fellow in McGill’s Department of Chemistry. “That’s precisely the kind of transformation this new chemical process enables.”
The research team’s new light-driven chemical process converts methane and carbon dioxide into green methanol and carbon monoxide in one reaction. Both products are highly valued in the chemical and energy sectors, the researchers said.
The findings, published in Nature Communications, describe a novel mechanism rooted in nature’s own blueprint, similar to how photosynthesis enables plants to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen using sunlight.
In this chemical process, a unique mix of gold, palladium, and gallium nitride acts as a catalyst. When exposed to sunlight, the substance triggers a reaction: an oxygen atom from carbon dioxide attaches to a methane molecule, producing green methanol. Carbon monoxide is created as a byproduct.
Great news, right? Don’t count it, though. That’s because fossil fuel opponents are haters and won’t be easily dissuaded from their contempt for industries that are, at the root, practical and blue-collar in nature. The haters, because they tend to be trust-funder types, typically lack any practical skills and, therefore, abhor any industry and people founded on them. They’d rather be described as the ‘creative class” and dreamers of great utopian ideas, but the reality is that coal, oil, natural gas (and nuclear) industry folks are the only ones creating anything valuable and the dreamers instinctively know it. It’s a matter of envy that cannot be admitted.
And, there’s another reason this science won’t be warmly greeted. It doesn’t advance the Great Green Grift. Indeed, the new science suggests the Great Green Grift isn’t necessary at all and there are trillions of dollars at stake. I’ve never been worried about carbon but let this word out and others will be a lot less worried as well. That can’t be allowed. So, don’t expect this news to get much traction but we’ll push it and, I hope, others will as well.
#CO2 #CarbonDioxide #Methane #Methanol #Science #CarExhaust
Progress in what we should be focused on - emissions and pollution. The grifters are backed into a corner by economic reality and are pushing hard to destroy the modern lifestyle, while they protest and complain while the rest of humanity goes to work. Better life by better chemistry.
This technology will use the 97%+ of naturally occurring CO2, i.e. plant food while reducing man-made CO2 by a mere 3% or less. That's what it means when CO2 is measured in parts-per-million and the anthropogenic component is 3% or less (according to the IPCC).