Monday, May 9, 2011

Perfect solution for climate change - Transform CO2 into something useful

There are many different scientific theories featuring variety of different climate change solutions but none sounds as good as transforming harmful carbon dioxide (CO2), the greenhouse gas mostly responsible for climate change, into some useful form of energy.

Joel Rosenthal, a chemist at the University of Delaware, is convinced that this solution is very much possible, and that this would not only decrease the CO2 levels in the atmosphere but would also offer an excellent new method to produce renewable energy.

Rosenthal's team is currently designing electrocatalysts from metals such as nickel and palladium, and these metals should freely give away electrons when they react with carbon dioxide, therefore chemically reducing this greenhouse gas into energy-rich carbon monoxide or methanol.

Carbon monoxide and methanol could be later used for many useful purposes such as production of plastics and solvents, detergents, drug manufacturing, etc.

Rosenthal said :" It's my hope to be able to map out the molecular design principles for efficient CO2 conversion into fuels. Then you can think about doing this on a commercially relevant scale."

If science were to come up with the commercially viable option to transform CO2 into useful fuels, this would mean several different benefits: first of all this would help tackle climate change and second this would improve future energy security and energy independence.

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