Today, airplanes pump a lot of climate-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But someday, carbon dioxide sucked from the atmosphere could be used to power airplanes.But if CO2, rather than oil, were used to make jet fuel, that could reduce the air travel industry’s carbon footprint — which currently makes up 12 percent of all transportation-related CO2 emissions.
Past attempts to convert carbon dioxide into fuel have relied on catalysts made of relatively expensive materials, like cobalt, and required multiple chemical processing steps. The new catalyst powder is made of inexpensive ingredients, including iron, and transforms CO2 in a single step.
When placed in a reaction chamber with carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas, the catalyst helps carbon from the CO2 molecules separate from oxygen and link up with hydrogen — forming the hydrocarbon molecules that make up jet fuel. The leftover oxygen atoms from the CO2 join up with other hydrogen atoms to form water.
Past attempts to convert carbon dioxide into fuel have relied on catalysts made of relatively expensive materials, like cobalt, and required multiple chemical processing steps. The new catalyst powder is made of inexpensive ingredients, including iron, and transforms CO2 in a single step.
When placed in a reaction chamber with carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas, the catalyst helps carbon from the CO2 molecules separate from oxygen and link up with hydrogen — forming the hydrocarbon molecules that make up jet fuel. The leftover oxygen atoms from the CO2 join up with other hydrogen atoms to form water.
