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Related: About this forumUGA discovery may allow scientists to make fuel from CO2 in the atmosphere
http://news.uga.edu/releases/article/uga-discovery-may-allow-scientists-to-make-fuel-from-co2-in-the-atmosp/[font face=Serif][font size=5]UGA discovery may allow scientists to make fuel from CO2 in the atmosphere[/font]
March 26, 2013
Writer: James Hataway
Contact: Michael W.W. Adams
[font size=3]Athens, Ga. - Excess carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change, and researchers the world over are looking for new ways to generate power that leaves a smaller carbon footprint.
Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have found a way to transform the carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere into useful industrial products. Their discovery may soon lead to the creation of biofuels made directly from the carbon dioxide in the air that is responsible for trapping the sun's rays and raising global temperatures.
"Basically, what we have done is create a microorganism that does with carbon dioxide exactly what plants do-absorb it and generate something useful," said Michael Adams, member of UGA's Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and Distinguished Research Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
"What this discovery means is that we can remove plants as the middleman," said Adams, who is co-author of the study detailing their results published March 25 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. "We can take carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and turn it into useful products like fuels and chemicals without having to go through the inefficient process of growing plants and extracting sugars from biomass."
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1222607110March 26, 2013
Writer: James Hataway
Contact: Michael W.W. Adams
[font size=3]Athens, Ga. - Excess carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change, and researchers the world over are looking for new ways to generate power that leaves a smaller carbon footprint.
Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have found a way to transform the carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere into useful industrial products. Their discovery may soon lead to the creation of biofuels made directly from the carbon dioxide in the air that is responsible for trapping the sun's rays and raising global temperatures.
"Basically, what we have done is create a microorganism that does with carbon dioxide exactly what plants do-absorb it and generate something useful," said Michael Adams, member of UGA's Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and Distinguished Research Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
"What this discovery means is that we can remove plants as the middleman," said Adams, who is co-author of the study detailing their results published March 25 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. "We can take carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and turn it into useful products like fuels and chemicals without having to go through the inefficient process of growing plants and extracting sugars from biomass."
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UGA discovery may allow scientists to make fuel from CO2 in the atmosphere (Original Post)
OKIsItJustMe
Mar 2013
OP
hunter
(38,311 posts)1. Don't make fuel of it, put it back in the ground!
Fill all those empty coal mines, gas and oil fields back up again with carbon removed from the air.
No, I know it's not going to happen, not even if somebody starts building cheap fusion plants tomorrow, but it's a pleasant daydream...
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)2. Personally, I rather like the idea of using it to make plastics
Its a reasonably good way to sequester it, and makes practical use of it at the same time.