Global CO2 recycling - novel materials and prospect for prevention of global warming and abundant energy supply

CO2 emissions which induce global warming, increase with the growth of the economic activity. It is, therefore, impossible to decrease emissions only by energy savings and by improvements of the energy efficiency. Global CO2 recycling can solve this problem and supply abundant renewable energy. Glob al CO2 recycling consists of three districts: (i) in deserts, all necessary electricities are generated by solar cells; (ii) on coasts close to the de serts, the electricity is used for production of H-2 by seawater electrolys is, H-2 is converted to CH4 by the reaction with CO2 and liquefied CH4 is t ransported to energy consuming districts; (iii) at energy consuming distric t, after CH4 is used as a fuel, CO2 is recovered, liquefied and transported to the coasts close to the deserts. A CO2 recycling plant for substantiati on of our idea has been built on the roof of our Institute (IMR) in 1996, u sing key materials tailored by us. The key materials necessary for global C O2 recycling are the anode and cathode for seawater electrolysis and the ca talyst for CO2 methanation. Since the quantities of CO2 to be converted far exceed an industrial level, the system must be very simple and the rate of conversion must be very fast. These requirements are satisfied in our glob al CO2 recycling system. When global CO2 recycling is conducted on a large scale, the energies and costs required to form liquefied CH4 in our global CO2 recycling system are almost the same as those for production of LNG fro m natural gas wells. A project for field experimenting the global CO2 recyc ling using pilot plants in Egypt has been planned in cooperation with Egypt ian scientists, engineers and industries. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. Al l rights reserved.