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Feature
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Written by Sabrina Deparine
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Tuesday, 22 June 2010 10:26 |
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Page views: 1226 |
Carbon Sciences Inc. has found a way to put carbon emissions into good use: as raw materials for fuel.
 The breakthrough technology can transform carbon dioxide emissions directly into liquid fuel similar to gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. It was actually inspired by natural-life support mechanisms found in some microorganisms which can convert carbon dioxide gas to fuel components like methane, butanol and methanol.
To date, the company is still finding ways to improve the process rates because the process is still slow and a bit inefficient. For instance, the proteins tend to expire after only a few cycles of transformation. A good amount of energy is needed to produce new proteins.
To address this drawback, Carbon Science created a proprietary encapsulation to cover the proteins in a protective shell. Hopefully, this can improve the lifespan and durability of the proteins. So far, tests results show that the proteins in the shell can perform an extended number of transformation cycles before they expire, thus, maximizing the use of the other expensive enzymes.
A follow-up method has likewise been formulated wherein the oxidation of water can create energy molecules that contain hydrogen atoms. These are then integrated into the initial carbon dioxide process to complete the low-energy transformation.
This new carbon dioxide-to-fuel technology can be applied to natural gas fields that have carbon dioxide and methane. It also eliminates the requirement for advanced and costly technologies as it can extract carbon molecules from inexpensive, low-quality algae found in open ponds.
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