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Perspectives: Reuse of carbon dioxide as biofuel
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
Recycling the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere in epic quantities is incredibly difficult, but many scientists believe it is not only worth the effort, but necessary. The threat of climate change to the planet is so great that they say it is impossible to tackle the problem without these technologies.
The idea of capturing carbon dioxide produced by coal-fired power plants and other sources for underground storage has already gained traction, with several pilot projects already in operation or underway.
The proposal to reuse carbon dioxide has had less luck so far: although science has long known that fuel can be produced by mixing carbon with hydrogen, many are put off by the high energy intensity of this process. “There is no free lunch,” says Hans Ziock of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA). “Add to that the fact that production is never 100% efficient, so you end up putting in more energy than you get out.” Because of this energy curse, he says, it makes more sense to use fuel from oil. “If nature made it for us for free, why not use it?” the expert concludes.
But oil reserves are running out. They have to drill in deep water, squeeze out tar sands and look towards the Arctic. Is it time for an alternative? Well, for the US, carbon dioxide processing would be a good way to get off the oil needle, but it is useless to save the climate, Mr. Ziok emphasizes, until the process is more energy efficient.
Fortunately, there are pioneers in this area too. According to them, the technology is not perfect, but it already exists. It is possible not even to collect emissions from power plants or cars, but to extract carbon dioxide directly from the air. “They say: “Compress it and bury it!” And we say: “No, give it to us, and we will make gasoline from it!” - these are the words of Byron Elton, CEO of Carbon Sciences from Santa Barbara. “Imagine a future in which water and carbon dioxide are fuel sources!” exclaims Peter Eisenberger, founder of the Earth Institute at Columbia University (USA) and one of the founders of Global Thermostat.
One way to solve the problem is to use solar energy. Ellen Stechel and her colleagues from the Sandia National Laboratory (USA) are developing a highly efficient chemical heat engine that will operate from the concentrated energy of the sun. Indeed, all energy (including that contained in hydrocarbons) comes from the Sun, so why not try to imitate nature again and again?
Researchers have developed a prototype solar reactor. It is a huge array of mirrors that focuses sunlight into a powerful beam directed at rings of a metal oxide. The rings rotate and heat up to 1,400˚C, and then cool down to 1,100˚C. Carbon dioxide or water is fed to them. At high temperatures, the rings give up oxygen, and at relatively low temperatures, on the contrary, they take it. The result is carbon monoxide or hydrogen - components of hydrocarbon fuel.
The prototype occupies about 20 m² and serves a reactor the size of a beer keg. In order to collect the equivalent of a million barrels of oil per day in the form of sunlight, 121.4 thousand hectares of mirrors (larger than the area of Moscow) would be needed. Note in parentheses that the world consumes about 86 million barrels of liquid fuels per day, including biofuels.
The above-mentioned Carbon Sciences mixes carbon dioxide with natural gas (or methane as its main component) in the presence of a metal catalyst. The latter is reportedly made of common metals - nickel and cobalt with the participation of aluminum and magnesium. And the conversion of the resulting synthetic gas into transport fuel is already a well-established technology. The difference in Carbon Sciences' approach is that it is done dry. The company is already working on the first batch of diesel fuel.
It is important to note that some of the hydrocarbons in this process come from natural gas. Others, such as the British firm Air Fuel Synthesis, are trying to do the same without methane and using wind power. The goal is a litre of jet fuel a day (as a technology demonstration).
Researchers note that one of the most important advantages of such energy is that it will allow us to preserve the entire current infrastructure, because it will be the same fuel that we use today. Let us recall that it is precisely the need to invest in rebuilding the infrastructure that greatly slows down the development of solar and wind energy.
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