For the first time .. Cambridge scientists find a way to convert air to fuel

شادي عبد الحافظ Free Membership

A research team from the University of Cambridge has created a device that looks like the leaves of plants. Only with light, water and carbon dioxide can it produce "synthetic gas" containing a mixture that can be used as fuel instead of fossil fuels.

According to the findings of the study, published on October 21 in the journal Nature Materials, the synthetic leaf can produce a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which is already being used to produce a range of commodities such as fuel, medicine, plastics and fertilizers.

But the new tool can use carbon dioxide to produce that mixture, rather than the known method that relies mainly on coal or natural gas. In addition, the synthetic leaf uses cobalt as a catalyst for the chemical process, a naturally occurring element.

Artificial plant leaf
On the other hand, the new artificial plant leaf can work effectively in low-light atmospheres, such as cloudy sky, which, unlike in the Arab world, is common in Europe and North America.

According to the new study, the device works immediately after submerged water, it contains two pieces to absorb light; one uses cobalt to produce oxygen, and the second stimulates the chemical reaction that reduces carbon dioxide and water through it to carbon monoxide and hydrogen, a mixture that can be converted to fuel.

The researchers hope that in the future, they will be able to overcome this transitional step, which includes the conversion of artificial gas into fuel to design an artificial plant paper that turns carbon dioxide into fuel directly, and this will be a major breakthrough in the development of the fuel industry.

Sustainable future
Carbon dioxide is produced in the atmosphere in enormous amounts that have not occurred on the planet since 800 thousand years ago, mainly because of the use of fossil fuels in transportation, factories and power plants, which causes many disasters, the most important of which is the high average temperatures on the planet This has evolved to the point that the hottest 10 years in measurement history have been in the past 20 years.

Therefore, any innovation that can reuse CO2 will play a major role in the future in reducing that percentage.

Replacing fossil fuels with carbon dioxide fuels will help develop a sustainable environment on the planet that does not collapse on its own.