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Recovering atmospheric carbon can make new fuel
(Climate News Network, 4 Feb 2021) Taking atmospheric carbon dioxide from the air to make fuel could tackle two threats: greenhouse gases and oil shortage.
British scientists have worked out a way of recovering atmospheric carbon, meaning they can conjure aviation jet fuel from thin air, using an inexpensive catalyst to turn carbon dioxide into a range of hydrocarbons so far produced from crude oil.
More than 6,000 miles to the east, chemists have produced an aerogel, one kilogramme of which is capable of producing − again just from the ambient air − 17 litres of fresh water in a day.
Both these solutions to a growing demand for fuel and water are only at the demonstration stage. Commercial production is a long way off.
Both are yet more evidence of the enormous ingenuity and invention at work in the world’s laboratories and universities as they address the energy dilemma: how to power human society without generating the greenhouse gases that could also − through climate change driven by global heating − ultimately destroy it.
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Climate News Network, 4 Feb 2021: Recovering atmospheric carbon can make new fuel
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