Thread: Australian, and overseas scientists, convert CO2 back to coal, in a World first

Hey here’s a novel idea...stop land clearing and plant trees.

Our collective obsession with trying to reinvent nature is simply bonkers.

Been going on for a long time - since about 40,000 years ago in Australia!

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I realise this is Australia, where according to a former PM the law of the land beats the laws of mathematics

It's true you know, at least in economics. 1+2 = 2 when some suit has stolen 1 and is protected by the law.

Tried checking the background of the journal, on first thought that it might be a cash for comment pro industry set up, but seems legit scholarly.

At a guess the only way the process will work, if it has high energy demands, is solar power - but then why not use that level of solar investment for regular use, and have the trees/oceans absorb the carbon - or can we have our cake and eat it? Carbon pellet propelled vehicles, easy to refuel. MPG?

Originally Posted by JDNSW

While it may have applications, elementary chemistry tells us that the endothermic process of breaking the carbon - oxygen bond to convert the carbon dioxide to carbon (not really coal) will take at least as much energy as was released by the exothermic reaction of making the bond by burning coal. This means that, assuming best practice power generation from burning the coal at 40% efficiency, to convert the carbon dioxide back to carbon will require 2.5 times the electricity that burning the coal produced. Assuming this new process is 100% efficient; which it won't be! Nothing ever is, in practice.

So I'm not sure what you would use it for.

Most solar / wind farms, at some stage during the day / wind period, produce more DC ergertrons than they can convert to grid power or the grid doesn't need that power at that time. They can put batteries there to charge but those fill up quickly. If you could get this process in a suitably priced / sized plant, it could soak up the extra power and would start to wind back the CO2 clock. It might also give the the energy farms something else to sell, if nothing else you could use it for steel production.

Cheers Glen

The future for steel production is probably hydrogen (possibly produced electrolytically on site, and the oxygen used for part of the process - carbon fuel is not an absolute requirement, although some is needed to provide carbon content in the steel - probably from using some methane in the fuel rather than solid carbon though.

Perhaps could be used for removing CO2 from the atmosphere, but as I said earlier, it seems to me that the well established photosynthesis process (i.e. plants) would be far cheaper and more effective.

there is no way you can use one form of energy to make another form of energy without loss.

you CANNOT perpetuate.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Been going on for a long time - since about 40,000 years ago in Australia!

You mean careful, sustainable land management? ...much longer than that. 80,000+ years on this continent.

...But brought to an abrupt halt particularly over the past 100 years with epic mechanical land clearing...and ongoing around the world today despite both western science and indigenous knowledge knowing better.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

The future for steel production is probably hydrogen (possibly produced electrolytically on site, and the oxygen used for part of the process - carbon fuel is not an absolute requirement, although some is needed to provide carbon content in the steel - probably from using some methane in the fuel rather than solid carbon though.

Perhaps could be used for removing CO2 from the atmosphere, but as I said earlier, it seems to me that the well established photosynthesis process (i.e. plants) would be far cheaper and more effective.

It seems this hydrogen and even methane might one day be able to be produced in quantity from renewable solar and wind.

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