[HN Gopher] Encapsulated Co-Ni alloy boosts high-temperature CO2...
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       Encapsulated Co-Ni alloy boosts high-temperature CO2
       electroreduction
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 24 points
       Date   : 2025-06-06 18:06 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
        
       | alex_duf wrote:
       | I'm not a chemist, so I'm failing to see the implications.
       | 
       | Has this got any chance of reducing our CO2 footprint?
        
         | yathern wrote:
         | Electrolysis is one of the most promising paths to CO2
         | utilization - not just collecting and burying CO2, but using
         | it.
         | 
         | With a feed of CO2 plus electricity, you can make a number of
         | chemicals. Some companies look to make fuels - but there's
         | plenty of other chemicals that can be made this way. Fuels are
         | attractive, but also borderline thermodynamically impossible to
         | make profitable vs petrochemical fuels, unless energy is free.
         | Even still, SAFs (sustainable aviation fuels) and other green-
         | washed products can be profitable here. There's also a few use
         | cases for being able to generate fuel in remote places (space,
         | at sea, military applications, national security in case of
         | pipeline blockade)
        
           | emittens wrote:
           | We could choose to redefine profitable -- taxing authority
           | exists in much of the world. Make synthetic fuels that
           | demonstrably generate themselves via solar or wind tax free.
           | Impose taxes on fuels that come from the ground.
           | 
           | We're producing an unbelievable amount of solar energy right
           | now, and that amount is skyrocketing. Especially in China,
           | who seems at the front of a shift toward renewables.
        
           | jmward01 wrote:
           | China is pushing so much power production via renewables that
           | the idea of 'free' power is becoming more and more of a
           | reality. I don't think using this for fuel makes a lot of
           | sense but we use oil for a lot of things other than fuels.
           | With enough investment in renewables to create huge amounts
           | of excess power we can potentially use this to replace a lot
           | of the non fuel uses of oil. Factories in the desert that
           | produce their own raw materials from the air using the solar
           | and wind right next to them is the dream here.
        
         | SiempreViernes wrote:
         | They are talking about turning CO2 into burnable fuel, so it's
         | hard to see how this on its own would reduce emissions if you
         | burn that fuel outside closed containers.
        
           | yathern wrote:
           | If 100% of the fuel we use comes from this technique - where
           | it is imbued with carbon that was atmosphere-bound (flue gas)
           | then we have decreased emissions significantly, since the
           | alternative was that we release the flue gas CO2 AND the
           | burning fuel CO2.
        
           | jmward01 wrote:
           | so long as it is a closed cycle it is neutral. That is the
           | key. carbon from the air that goes back into the air is fine.
           | Carbon from the ground that goes into the air is
           | unsustainable.
        
         | funnym0nk3y wrote:
         | Indirectly yes. Instead of releasing additional carbon first
         | into chemical products and then after they are waste into the
         | atmosphere, the carbon is pulled out of the atmosphere first.
        
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