Scientists produce clean, cheap, and infinite fuels. Could it be an electrical impediment?

Researchers have developed a solar-powered technology capable of converting carbon dioxide and water into liquid fuel that can be used directly in car engines. This discovery could mean unlimited, clean and very cheap energy. Will it be applicable?

Infinite, cheap and clean fuel
A team of scientists from Cambridge University Harnessing the power of photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide, water and sunlight into polycarbonate fuels (ethanol and propanol) in a single step.  These fuels have a high energy density and can be easily stored and transported.
Unlike fossil fuels, these solar fuels generate zero net carbon emissions and are completely renewable.  Moreover, unlike most bioethanol, it does not require conversion of farmland to produce it.
Although the technology is still in the laboratory stage, the researchers say their "synthetic leaves" represent an important step in the transition to a fossil fuel economy.
a bioethanol It has been promoted as a cleaner alternative to gasoline because it is produced from plants rather than fossil fuels.  Today, most cars and trucks run on gasoline containing up to 10% ethanol (E10 fuel).  According to the US Department of Agriculture, About 45% of the corn grown In the United States it is used to produce ethanol.

Biofuels like ethanol are a controversial technology, mainly because they take up agricultural land that could be used to grow food.

said Erwin Reisner, director of the investigation.
Reisner's research group, based in Youssef Hamid's Department of Chemistry, has been developing sustainable, carbon-neutral fuels inspired by photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into food, using artificial leaves for several years.



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Towards a chemical marvel
So far, these artificial leaves can only produce simple chemicals such as syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide used in the production of fuels, medicines, plastics and fertilizers.  However, to make the technology more practical, it must be able to directly produce more complex chemicals in a single step, powered by solar energy.
The team developed a copper-palladium-based catalyst.  This catalyst has been improved to allow the paper to produce more complex chemicals, specifically polycarbonate alcohols, ethanol and n-propanol.  Both alcohols are energy dense fuels that can be easily transported and stored.
Other scientists have been able to produce similar chemicals using electrical power, but this is it First time such complex chemicals have been produced With an artificial leaf that only uses the energy of the sun.

Illuminating artificial leaves with sunlight and obtaining liquid fuel from carbon dioxide and water is a chemical marvel.  Normally, when you try to convert carbon dioxide into another chemical with an artificial leaf machine, you always get carbon monoxide or syngas, but in this case, we were able to produce a practical liquid fuel using only the sun's energy.  This is an exciting discovery that opens up new possibilities in our work.

d said  Mutiar Rahman, first author of the paper.
Currently, the device is a proof of concept and has a modest efficiency.  The researchers are working on improving the light absorbers so they can better absorb sunlight and improving the catalyst so that more sunlight can be converted into fuel.  Furthermore, more work will be required to make the device scalable so that it can produce large amounts of fuel.

While there is still work to be done, we have shown what these artificial leaves are capable of.  It is important to show that we can go beyond the simplest molecules and produce things that are directly useful in our transition away from fossil fuels.

I finish Erwin Reisner.
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