Carbon Recycling -

Jane Cavagnero, November 4th, 2011.

Purpose:

The purpose of my presentation was expose the class to a new technology that I personally believe has a very promising future. Carbon recycling is one of the few carbon negative technologies around and instead of just reducing carbon emissions it is taking the carbon dioxide out of the air and turning back into fuel to be reused. It is done with the power of the sun, it takes in the CO2 and is mixed with water at very high temperatures until the carbon and the hydrogen bond to create Syngas. The article I found through National Geographics explained how this biomimicry of photosynthesis could soon become a reliable alternative once it is made more affordable. There are still several issues that need to be addressed with this technology: the fact that it needs a substantial amount of water to function, this does not encourage people to change their habits and this way the amount of carbon emissions is not reduced whatsoever.

Discussion Questions:

Where do you guys stand on this issue, how important do you think it is? And do you think it is worth the money to continue developing this technology?

A potential issue with this is the use of water, which is a limited resource, with an already high demand in water, would it be a good idea to depend on it for fuel as well?

Another issue is that the cars are still releasing the same amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, so this plan would have to go hand in hand with the reduction of carbon dioxide in other realms. In general, do you think it is more important to reduce of current carbon emissions or to take out the abundance of carbon from the atmosphere?

Additional Information:

http://www.americanenergyindependence.com/recycleco2.aspx

Links:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/08/110811-turning-carbon-emissions-into-fuel/

http://www.cereplast.com/carbon-recycling-an-effective-way-to-reduce-carbon-dioxide-emissions-and-convert-them-into-renewable-fuel-sources/