Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Climate Change and Environmental Issues Carbon Sequestration

A breakthrough in carbon capture and storage: turning CO2 into coal

I ran across this innovative method of carbon dioxide sequestration, while looking up some information about fungi. It is a clever use of Gallium alloys that have melting points near room temperature, to serve as electrodes with doping of other catalytic ions (cerium etc) to reduce CO2, which is pretty hard to reduce. The product of the reduction is a carbonaceous solid, that had previously been a problem as it "coked" up previous electrodes. (Not that kind of COKED UP, you druggies) The advantage of the liquid metal electrodes is that the coke-like product falls off in sheets that are easy to capture.

The black carbonaceous material can be buried, but it sure looks similar to Bio-Char to me.

Does anyone know why this hasn't caught on as a carbon sequestration method, particularly since it produces a product that could be utilized in compost and soil improvements?

I have enjoyed playing with Woods metal, one of the low melting alloys, that was quite toxic from cadmium, unlike Gallium. We cast some spoons of it that melted when used to stir coffee

That’s interesting but short on practical information and context. Where does the CO2 gas come from? Electricity is needed - how much and from where? (it sounded kinda like the process provided it somehow). Does the carbon produced have significant microporosity, or does it need to be “activated” before being useful in the soil?

Sounds like it is still in the research phase and strategies for scaling and implementation are a ways off. I wonder if they are thinking of flue emissions scrubbing, or general vacuuming of the atmosphere?

While there appear to be similarities to biochar, the lifecycle context and range of associated benefits and costs are probably very different.

Room temperature CO2 reduction to s...aturing atomically thin ceria interfaces

I try, often unsuccessfully, not to overwhelm casual readers with the primary literature detail, but rather the big picture.
But here you go! Room temperature CO2 reduction to solid carbon species on liquid metals featuring atomically thin ceria interfaces. More than you want to know about Galinstan liquid metal cat-a-lists.
Would you like Raman with your energy disspersive x-ray analysis?
co2 liquid catalysts

I was interested that some of the carbonaceous produce was reduced not just to elemental carbon, but some areas had unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds. The deposits are planar but this may be due to trying to crank up efficiency by keeping the electrode from coking up, to show potential for practical CO2 reduction.
I suspect that by running the electrolytic process a bit differently you might be able to generate a more three dimensional structure with deep aromatic cores like biochar. This was clearly not their main focus, just something I was considering from the soil side of conservation.

The other advantage is that it take place at room temperature, as well as making a stable solid carbon product with possible uses. I would figure that solar cell electricity would be used to drive this low voltage process.
I feel sad that all those photons hitting SW arid areas are being wasted, not to mention all the newly generated deserts around the world.
I'm buying to Gallium and Cerrium futures, though I coincidentally happen to have a supply of Cerium oxide in the basement, previously used for polishing glassy stones like obsidian. I see an experiment happening in the basement soon
TAT

I got an error message, says "This site can't be reached", thus I think you maybe mangled the URL?

Thats why I put them in two places! Same url as in title, but fixed it in edit anyway!

Let's turn all this carbon into diamonds and we'll all be rich enough to fly to Mars!

"And who will buy all of the diamonds?" said the Little Red Hen. "And who will get all of the carbon credits?"

All the other rich people will buy the diamonds. Like bitcoins they will forever rise in value and as soon as all the carbon is sequestered they will become more and more rare!

It's a win-win situation.

Sounds like solid science… I’m in!

Wellog,
You're no fun anymore
When looking into low melting alloys, the typical GalInStan goes for about $120/0.25 pounds, so almost $500/K.
This looks like something that would be fun to play around with! Thus there may be a problem with liquid alloy theft. It's a very liquid asset if there was a market, and notoriously difficult to dust for prints. Its too late for me to get out of my pure metals futures, but I may be lucky and find a way to get completely out of Galinstan!

TAT

Galinstan