K. Hashimoto et al., Global CO2 recycling - novel materials and prospect for prevention of global warming and abundant energy supply, MAT SCI E A, 267(2), 1999, pp. 200-206
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.