New Discovery Could Mean Making Fuel From CO2 In The Atmosphere

March 27th, 2013 by Joshua S Hill

If we’ve learned anything from the totality of human history, it is that if we ever find anything in great enough abundance, we’ll try to use it for something that benefits us. One need only look at the coal deposits, forests, and oceans for proof of this.

This instinctual human trait has been the cause of numerous conflicts and problems, including the highly publicised anthropogenic global warming that has caused our current climate change.

Our atmosphere is slowly suffocating on increased levels of carbon dioxide which are trapping heat and warming our planet, slowly melting the ice caps, raising the sea level, and pushing warmer latitudes closer to the poles.

But now, researchers at the University of Georgia, USA, have found something that we have in abundance and created something useful out of it. They have developed a means in which to transform the carbon dioxide saturating our atmosphere into useful industrial products like chemicals and fuel.

“Basically, what we have done is create a microorganism that does with carbon dioxide exactly what plants do-absorb it and generate something useful,” said Michael Adams, member of UGA’s Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and Distinguished Research Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Michael Adams is a member of UGA’s Bioenergy Systems Research Institute
Image Credit: University of Georgia

While it might be the natural process our planet has designed, the mechanism by which plants photosynthesise carbon into sugars is thoroughly unhelpful for the humans who want to use that stored carbon. The sugars that are created have proven to be troublesome to extract.

“What this discovery means is that we can remove plants as the middleman,” said Adams, who is co-author of the study. “We can take carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and turn it into useful products like fuels and chemicals without having to go through the inefficient process of growing plants and extracting sugars from biomass.”

The specifics are fascinating, and at the heart of it all is a tiny micro-organism called Pyrococcus furiosus, or “rushing fireball.” P. furiosus feeds on carbohydrates in the super-heated ocean waters near geothermal vents, and by manipulating its genetic material, Adams and his colleagues were able to create a version that is capable of feeding at much lower temperatures on carbon dioxide.

The research team then used hydrogen gas to create a chemical reaction in the P. furiosus which saw it incoporate carbon dioxide into 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a chemical often used to make acrylics and other products.

This manipulation is only the beginning, however, as Adams and his team believe that with further genetic manipulations they can make new strains of P. furiosus that create a range of products, including fuels for transport and power.

It’s a fascinating scientific discovery, but one that is really only a stopgap measure in the road of halting the exhalation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. The researchers noted that the fuel the P. furiosus could create would — when burned — release the same amount of carbon dioxide that was used to create it. This makes it carbon neutral, but really only serves to displace atmospheric carbon dioxide for a small period of time — as either a chemical, fuel, or other by-product.

“This is an important first step that has great promise as an efficient and cost-effective method of producing fuels,” Adams said. “In the future we will refine the process and begin testing it on larger scales.”

Great for a new industry, not very helpful in the long run for our planet.

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Tags: atmospheric carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide, chemicals, discovery, fuel, fuels, scientific discovery, university of georgia

About the Author

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

http://www.facebook.com/rhodomel.meads Rhodomel Meads

“They have developed a means in which to transform the carbon dioxide saturating our atmosphere…”

FYI: the saturation point of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is several orders of magnitude than what it is today!!!!!!!!
Scott Cooney

Even if it’s temporary, it’s still a win versus our old model of extracting nonrenewables from the earth’s crust for the same purposes. But…it’s GMO, and therefore scary. What security measures do they have in place?
Thomas Cheney

Air capture could provide a CO2 source.
http://www.facebook.com/guy.dauncey Guy Dauncey

Forgive me a playful moment… I can see a new Hollywood disaster movie in the making. A company finds a way to make the new GM organism that eats CO2 really cheaply, and sells it globally, enabling governments to slow their CO2 emissions.

But then the organism mutates, and starts eating far more CO2 than has been foreseen. It develops a crust, where it sequestrates the CO2, which falls to the Earth when the organism dies, creating permanent carbon sequestration. Is the world saved from climate change?

Yes! But no! The organism breeds exponentially, since it has no known ecological predator, and the CO2 level in the atmosphere starts falling, until Earth is no longer shielded from the utter cold of space. Life sputters out, as the last CO2 organisms evolve to suck up the last of the CO2, and then die out. RIP.
- anderlan
  
  Yeah, but, entropy. Oxygen has more kick because it has more kick.
  I can see problems if someone makes a superalgae that tolerates saltwater and gets loose in the ocean and somehow happens to thrive, without being eaten, and a lot of other things. I mean, we have to be mindful.
  But I have a really, really hard time seeing how we can have an impact heavier than the fossil burning impact we are presently litterally putting all of our efforts into.
  You’ll have to explain it better than “eats CO2″ to worry me in the least. At least to worry me about any impact that even approaches the current hellacious trap we are setting for ourselves.
Ajedi32

Uh, isn’t that what plants do anyway? Make fuel from CO2?
- S.Nkm
  
  Hence part of the explanation of why deforestation is a bad thing.
Ross

How much more efficient than photosynthesis?
Average Joe Bodybuilder

This is what is totally wrong with the system. Man has REFUSED to harness what is natural. On the other hand, man has INSISTED that the unnatural way is the best way. I mean just see what happened after the US / Israel governments made the 911 false flag attack! As a result of blaming it on some cave men, they destroyed 2 countries and destroyed generations through DU… Now if men could say, “we will use less and take ONLY what is necessary” then perhaps things could be much much better. http://averagejoebodybuilder.com
James Wimberley

You are wrong to dismiss this, and by implication other approaches to CO2 recycling. There is a set of uses for hydrocarbon fuels that are very difficult technologically to replace with renewable primary energy, which generally goes through electricity generation. Aviation, shipping, steel- and cement-making, and petrochemicals come to mind. So we badly need synthetic hydrocarbons, even in the long run of the carbon-neutral or negative-carbon future.
- arne-nl
  
  You can srrike cement making off that list: http://phys.org/news/2012-04-solar-thermal-cement-carbon-dioxide.html
  - James Wimberley
    
    There are several such promising lab-scale initiatives, but none of them have made it yet into industrial-scale production. British startup Novachem folded. It’s far too early to treat the problem as solved.
ihatemakingnewuserids

it’s -> its
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  not seeing this mistake anywhere. perhaps already corrected?
  - ihatemakingnewuserids
    
    Nope, it’s still there in the article.
    - http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
      
      ah, found it. thanks.
      - ihatemakingnewuserids
        
        Sure thing!
Dave2020

And, alternatively:-

“The AFS system uses renewable energy to capture carbon dioxide and water from CO2 point sources, though we have also proved our ability to take CO2 from air. We electrolyse the water to make hydrogen and react the carbon dioxide and hydrogen together to make liquid hydrocarbon fuels.”

http://www.airfuelsynthesis.com/technology.html

“The team at Air Fuel Synthesis believe there is a strong case, based on energy security and ambitious carbon reduction targets, to develop a drop in, near carbon neutral, aviation fuel using low carbon electricity, hydrogen, and atmospheric carbon dioxide.”