phew, just in time, the world was just about ready to burst into flames in 11 more years- /s
Whelp, here comes the ice age.
Regards,
Ethylene production: Intellectually interesting, if it’s economical.
Should have gone for producing ethanol, liquor is quicker...
Using copper to kick start the carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction into ethylene reaction (C2H4) has suffered two strikes against it. First, the initial chemical reaction also produced hydrogen and methane — both undesirable in industrial production. Second, previous attempts that resulted in ethylene production did not last long, with conversion efficiency tailing off as the system continued to run.
So, I wonder, how much hydrogen, how much methane? Both can power fuel cells.
So we’re going to spend tons of money and use lots of energy to reduce a relatively infinitesimal amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, producing ethylene, “a valuable chemical” whose major use is the in the production of plastic. Sounds good to me.
“We are at the brink of fossil fuel exhaustion, coupled with global climate change challenges”
opening statements like that pretty much destroy any credibility for the rest of the article ...
Fake News. They lie by omission. They omitted the fact that this process requires energy, far more than was used when oxidizing the carbon. It takes more energy to create each ethylene molecule than was created by burning the Carbon that produced the CO2. Even with a 100 percent efficient catalyst, it would take just as much energy as was used in the burning. A catalyst can’t create energy.
Researchers Discover Nanoscale Catalyst to Efficiently Convert CO2 Into Ethylene
They’ve killed two birds with one stone: ridding the bounteous Earth of hated CO2 and ugly vegetation, while making fuel for cars to run on. Absolutely Brilliant!™
How about planting trees?