The sudden appearance of a 38°C heat in a cold Arctic town, a rare "hot dome" phenomenon in the North American sky, wildfires that are raging frequently around the world, and the crazy collapse of the Antarctic ice shelf to create new giant icebergs are all proof that the climate crisis has quietly arrived.
Climatologists are also using their lifelong learning to deal with the global warming crisis, the main cause of global warming is the excessive emission of greenhouse gases by humans, which come from manufacturing plants, power stations, car exhaust, etc., and the most abundant substance in greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide (CO2).
According to NOAA's report in 2021, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased a lot, reaching 416 ppm. As long as the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere is reduced, then global warming will naturally be curbed, and "carbon dioxide to gasoline" is one of the solutions to reduce carbon dioxide.
As early as a few years ago, there has been a "carbon dioxide to gasoline" technology, but unfortunately, the conversion efficiency is very low, the cost is very high, very impractical, no one to use some technology, naturally can not be widely promoted.
But now, the "carbon dioxide to gasoline" technology has made a major breakthrough, the efficiency increased by 1,000 times, the news has triggered a hot discussion, the world has nearly 800 million cars, if they all use carbon dioxide converted gasoline, the atmospheric carbon dioxide will be greatly reduced, which means that the solution to the climate crisis will be just around the corner.
Whether it can really curb global warming, there is no discussion here, because "carbon dioxide to gasoline" is still in the experimental stage, there is no general application, we still leave it to time, time can prove everything, we only discuss the reasons for the increase in the efficiency of "carbon dioxide to gasoline" by 1000 times.
Recently, a new study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is shocking, which pointed out that after much hard work, researchers finally found a very suitable catalyst, greatly increasing the efficiency of conversion, nearly 1,000 times more than the original.
People with certain chemical knowledge know that the catalyst is an auxiliary substance that can accelerate the chemical reaction and improve the conversion rate, but it does not participate in the chemical reaction itself, and there is no loss itself.
Carbon dioxide contains carbon and oxygen, and water contains hydrogen and oxygen, the use of these two substances for chemical reaction, you can be converted into a combustible gas composed of carbon and hydrogen, such as ethane, propane, hydrogen, etc., are good combustibles, but unfortunately the conversion rate is not high, the cost is also very large, no one will do this.
But now a very suitable catalyst has come, the catalyst is composed of a rare metal element ruthenium compound, ruthenium is pronounced liǎo, the element symbol is Ru, many people may not have heard of it, the atomic weight of ruthenium is 101.07, the atomic number is 44, the melting point is 2523K, and the boiling point is 4423K.
The reason why we rarely hear of "ruthenium" is because this substance is too rare, the content in the earth's crust is only one billionth, previous studies have shown that ruthenium shows strong stability, very resistant to corrosion, can withstand nitric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid and aqua regia corrosion, more stable than gold.
But today, researchers have found that ruthenium is still a very good catalyst, as long as the compound composed of ruthenium is coated with a thin layer of plastic, it becomes a powerful catalyst, speeding up the chemical reaction and improving the conversion efficiency.
In the process of converting carbon dioxide into gasoline, the compounds composed of ruthenium can play a very important role in converting carbon dioxide into the longest hydrocarbon, that is, "artificial gasoline".
In order to find the most suitable catalyst, the team led by Matteo Caniero from Stanford University has been studying for 7 years, and now there is finally a major breakthrough, which is really a blessing for future humanity.
However, according to Matteo Canhero, the efficiency of "carbon dioxide to gasoline" has increased by 1,000 times, but there are still imperfections, so the team continues to look for more efficient conversion methods. It seems that human solutions to the carbon dioxide crisis are really just around the corner.
I believe that Hawking's prediction that "the future of the earth will become a fireball" will become an empty phrase, of course, we can not only count on this technology to reduce greenhouse gases, we still have to continue to save energy and reduce emissions, more afforestation, two-pronged approach, will be able to solve the climate crisis. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration