Breakthrough CO2-fueled generator turns greenhouse gas into electricity | Researchers claim that they were able to capture approximately 1 percent of the inherent energy contained within CO2 gas.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/generator-turns-greenhouse-gas-into-electricity
by PathlessDemon
1 comment
TL;DR: It’s **not a breakthrough**, and it might not even ever be useful.
Highlights from the linked Reddit post:
>***HOT TIP***: If you see the post links to [interestingengineering.com](http://interestingengineering.com) you can just skip it! It is bullshit nearly 100% of the time, and more often than not posted by a bot account. Please refrain from posting links to this site.
>—
>“1% of the inherent energy contained within CO2 gas,” is utter gobbledygook. Let’s go ahead and walk that claim back.
>What it looks like the researchers did is create a complicated substrate for adsorbing CO2 to an amine functional group. There’s nothing groundbreaking there. It’s the basic concept behind one of the main carbon capture concepts.
>What is different is they’re trying to extract electricity from the energy potential of adsorbing CO2 to a solid amine based substrate (?).
>—
>Think of it as a selective sponge that only (mostly) soaks up CO2 out of the atmosphere.
>But where it gets complicated is, what happens next: you must regenerate the material, basically pressing the sponge until the CO2 comes out and you can use your sponge again. [That takes more energy than you produced.]