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MIT Technology Review: To be economically viable, the conversion of carbon dioxide into liquid methanol—an alternative to fossil fuels—requires a combination of cheap electricity to power the process and an ample source of carbon dioxide. Iceland has both, with electricity available for industrial use at one-third the price charged in the US and geothermal power plants that emit easy-to-purify streams of carbon dioxide. For those reasons, it has become home to the first potentially profitable commercial CO2-to-methanol conversion plant. Built by Carbon Recycling International, the plant is adjacent to a geothermal plant that provides both the electricity and the CO2. The methanol plant uses electricity to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms and then combines the hydrogen with CO2 to form methanol. According to K-C Tran, the company’s CEO, the 5-million-liter plant will likely become profitable within the next year. The process could also be adapted for the production of other fuels, such as propanol.
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Carbon dioxide to methanol using geothermal power Free
3 December 2013