Solar-powered process could decrease carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels in 10 years

Thursday, July 22, 2010 - 08:07 in Physics & Chemistry

(PhysOrg.com) -- By using the sun's visible light and heat to power an electrolysis cell that captures and converts carbon dioxide from the air, a new technique could impressively clean the atmosphere and produce fuel feedstock at the same time. The key advantage of the new solar carbon capture process is that it simultaneously uses the solar visible and solar thermal components, whereas the latter is usually regarded as detrimental due to the degradation that heat causes to photovoltaic materials. However, the new method uses the sun`s heat to convert more solar energy into carbon than either photovoltaic or solar thermal processes alone.

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