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. Global CO2 recycling consists of three districts: (i) in deserts, all necessary electricities are generated by solar cells; (ii) on coasts close to the deserts, the electricity is used for production of H-2 by seawater electrolysis, H-2 is converted to CH4 by the reaction with CO2 and liquefied CH4 is transported to energy consuming districts; (iii) at energy consuming district, 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 substantiation of our idea has been built on the roof of our Institute (IMR) in 1996, using key materials tailored by us. The key materials necessary for global CO2 recycling are the anode and cathode for seawater electrolysis and the catalyst 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 global 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 from natural gas wells. A project for field experimenting the global CO2 recycling using pilot plants in Egypt has been planned in cooperation with Egyptian scientists, engineers and industries. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.