The previous item (about generating Carbon nanotubes etc after “burning” off just the hydrogen from methane using CO2 as the oxidant) raises a point that soot is mostly just unburned carbon and repurposing it as such may ultimately be a good approach to CO2 removal – which challenges the ideal of always demanding complete combustion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the same issue of Scientific American where that came up (though just in the paid promo section from Qatar) also includes a real article (by Wade Rouche in the edited ‘Ventures’ section ) which raises some concerns that have often troubled me about bio-degradable plastics (which always end up back in the air as CO2 rather than underground or on the seabed in a form which may eventually get geologically reformed into petroleum). Perhaps coincidentally(?), the first of the ’emerging technologies’ touted in that issue is the use of bio-sourced materials for the production of bio-degradable plastics – but without any acknowledgement that using those materials to produce non-degradable products would be even better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The previous item (about generating Carbon nanotubes etc after “burning” off just the hydrogen from methane using CO2 as the oxidant) raises a point that soot is mostly just unburned carbon and repurposing it as such may ultimately be a … Continue reading