Turn hydrogen and carbon dioxide into fuel

The CR5 device is considered a potential breakthrough to perform two tasks simultaneously: treating carbonic waste from synthetic gas production and production facilities as an alternative to traditional fuels.

Sandia Lab's Rich Diver is adjusting CR5 devices.Photo: Randy Montoya

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratory (USA) in the process of making use of cheap and abundant hydrogen into electricity have found that the same technology can 'burn back' CO2 into fuel. . In order to increase the efficiency of the system, the researchers designed a reaction device that converts CO2 emissions into carbon monoxide, then into syngas, which works without any fuel other than energy. Sun.

The device is simply called the Reversible Loop Reconciliation Device (the English word Counter-Rotating-Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator, abbreviated as CR5) causes a chemical heat reaction by giving an oxide composite Carbon-rich iron is exposed to highly concentrated heat from the sun. The composite detects oxygen molecules when heated and recovers oxygen molecules as it cools, and that is the principle of operation of this device.

CR5 cylindrical metal device is divided into hot chamber and cold chamber. Solar energy heats the hot chamber to very high temperatures, about 2700 degrees Celsius, which is enough to tie iron oxide composites to extract oxygen atoms. The composite is then pushed back into the cold chamber, filled with carbon dioxide. When cold, iron oxide recovers oxygen atoms that are lost, turning carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide.

If in this process water is pumped into the cold chamber, not CO ₂ will produce hydrogen. Hydrogen and carbon monoxide are then blended into syngas, used as a substitute for traditional hydrocarbon-based fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. But this is not a total solution to reduce carbon emissions because when it burns, syngas also produces CO2 and recovers.

Recovered carbon dioxide can be used to 'trap' waste carbon from factories and power plants, then reuse it in production rather than discharging it into the air, where it can cause problems that science learn not fully understand.

The team's next step is to double the process's efficiency compared to natural photosynthesis. The CR5 device has been on the market for more than 10 years, but at that time, scientists had no idea to retain waste carbon and bring it back to the process for direct use as fuel without anything else. in addition to the abundant sun rays.