Ionic Liquid Based CO2 Capturing Fuel Cell for Greenhouse Gas Reduction
- PDF / 1,176,778 Bytes
- 5 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 95 Downloads / 154 Views
1082-Q08-02
Ionic Liquid Based CO2 Capturing Fuel Cell for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Michal V. Wolkin, Raphael Stumpp, and Karl Littau Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Rd, Palo Alto, CA, 94304 ABSTRACT Room-temperature ionic liquids are utilized in a new CO2 capturing fuel cell. The cell is aimed at the efficient and cost effective removal of CO2 emitted from transportation related sources. The CO2 is captured from the atmosphere and is later converted into carbon free synthetic fuel such as methanol. In this study we optimized the operating conditions and the cell electrolytes. With ionic liquids such as 1-Butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide, the extraction efficiencies increased to ~20% while simultaneously making the capture process more robust. The ionic liquid approach is also compared to existing aqueous electrochemical CO2 concentration previously proposed by NASA for aerospace applications but with much lower efficiencies. INTRODUCTION A new DOE report published by the US climate change science program presents scenarios of greenhouse gas emission and atmospheric concentration based on three different modeling groups [1]. As seen in figure 1, the overall primary energy consumption is expected to rise by three to four times until year 2100. Fossil fuels are predicted to remain the major energy source supplying 70%-80% of the world primary energy while renewable sources become more affordable. However, their growth is expected to be insufficient to supplant fossil fuels as the major source of energy. In figure 2, the global CO2 emissions are shown to more than triple by 2100 resulting in up to 900ppm atmospheric CO2 concentration. As a result, radiative forcing will rise from 2W/m2 today up to 8.6W/m2, followed by accelerated global warming.
Figure 1. Rise in global primary energy consumption over one hundred years [1].
Figure 2. Global emissions of CO2
from fossil fuels and industrial sources based on three modeling groups[1].
Stabilization scenarios require both capturing the excess of CO2 while reducing the demand for fossil fuels such as by synthetic fuel production [2]. As outlined in his book, “Beyond Oil and Gas; the Methanol Economy”, George Olah proposes a direct reaction of CO2 into fuel via hydrogenation [3]. Such a fuel is frequently referred to as “synthetic fuel” to distinguish it from bio-fuel technology. Figure 3 summarizes the new concept which starts with the extraction of post combustion CO2 from sources such as industrial or transportation directly from the atmosphere. Transportation, specifically the combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles, is the single largest source of human-made greenhouse gases. Based on the California air resources board, passenger vehicles and light duty trucks create more than 30% of total greenhouse gas emission in the state. Even when electric vehicles will be commercialized, it is unlikely to completely replace gasoline as it will still be consumed as a secondary power source at time when battery packs need to be recharged. To extract CO2, cur
Data Loading...
