Producing Syngas From CO2 and Sunlight With Direct Air Capture
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Summary
A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a system that captures CO2 directly from the atmosphere and uses it to produce syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen) which can then be used as a fuel.
The device works by passing air through a bed of solid silica-amine, which captures CO2 during the night.
During the day, the captured CO2 is released by exposure to concentrated sunlight, and then passed over a bed of silica/alumina-titania-cobalt bis(terpyridine), which acts as a photocatalyst to convert the CO2 into syngas.
The team claims this is the first system that can adsorb CO2 directly from the air, rather than requiring a pure CO2 feedstock, and is therefore a viable alternative to other existing technologies for producing syngas.
