CO2 And Water Make Natural Gas?

Natural gas can be produced from a combination of water vapour and carbon dioxide, recent research indicates.

The process involves a group of nanotubes using sunlight as a power source.

The possibility of removing carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere, reducing its effect on the planet’s climate, and changing it into certain chemicals or fuel, is now available, said
Craig Grimes from the University of Pennsylvania.

Research carried out by some different groups has used ultraviolet light to achieve the change.

Grimes’ team has been able to make methane using the frequencies always present in natural sunlight.

The group has been using nanoparticles of titanium dioxide to create hydrocarbons 20 times faster than they achieved before.

It was able to improve the conversion effect of titanium dioxide with nanotubes to a size that gave more surface area.

The nanotubes were painted with reactive copper and platinum to make the final stages of the catalysis faster.

They fitted the tubes inside metal pipes, covered with a piece of quartz to permit the light to enter, then filled them with water vapour mixed with carbon dioxide, and placed them outdoors in the sun for 3 summer months last year.

The precise details of the catalysis are still unclear but Grimes’ team believes water and methane are derived from the break up in the carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen, which then reacts with gaseous hydrogen.

This change happened at speeds of 160 microlitres for each gram of nanotubes.

Syngas, capable of producing diesel can also be derived from an early termination of the reaction.

Grimes said that the use of nanoparticles of copper on the surface of the tubes may greatly improve the reaction time.

He added that it is too early to contemplate commercial use but confidently believes that will become feasible.

Milo Shaffer, from London’s Imperial College said that this technique could become a very exhilarating use of nanotubes.

Michael Gratzel at the Polytechnic School in Lausanne believes that after improvements in its effectiveness we can become optimistic of the viability of this method.