能有效地將二氧化碳轉化為液體燃料的新科技

工程師們建造了一種設備，可以有效地將二氧化碳轉化為液體燃料

Scientists have invented a new method for turning carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel that can efficiently store energy in fuel cells.

科學家們發(fā)明了一種新方法，可以將二氧化碳轉化為液體燃料，從而有效地將能量儲存在燃料電池中。

The fuel could one day be the future of green transport, cramming more energy into the tank than the same volume of hydrogen while also serving as a building block for a whole chemical production industry.

這種燃料將比同樣體積的氫氣有更多的能量，有朝一日可能成為綠色運輸?shù)奈磥?，同時也成為整個化學生產(chǎn)工業(yè)的基石。

In recent years, a new kind of technology based on formic acid has attracted attention as the next generation of fuel cells.

近年來，以甲酸為基礎的新一代燃料電池技術引起了人們的關注。

Formic acid isn't typically what comes to mind when we think of the fuel of the future. Found naturally contributing to the pain of bee and ant stings, it is a formidable energy carrier. It just currently takes a lot of effort to concentrate into a useful form.

當我們想到未來的燃料時，通常不會想到甲酸。它是一種強大的能量載體，能自然地引起蜜蜂和螞蟻的刺痛。但目前需要大量的努力，把它應用到一個有用的形式。

Engineers at Rice University in Houston, Texas, have rethought the entire production process and come up with a clever method to do away with some of the more involved steps, making the process far more efficient.

德克薩斯州休斯頓萊斯大學的工程師們，重新思考了整個生產(chǎn)過程，并想出了一個聰明的方法來消除一些更復雜的步驟，使生產(chǎn)過程更加高效。

"Usually people reduce carbon dioxide in a traditional liquid electrolyte like salty water," says chemist Haotian Wang.

化學家王浩天說:“通常人們會在鹽水等傳統(tǒng)液體電解質中減少二氧化碳。”

Those dissolved salts help convert the gas into a molecule that stores energy. But once you've got your fuel, you also have a thick briny soup to deal with, and sifting out the formic acid is painstaking work.

這些溶解的鹽有助于把氣體轉變成儲存能量的分子。但一旦你有了燃料，也會有一個厚厚的鹽水湯處理，篩選出甲酸是艱苦的工作。

"So we employed solid electrolytes that conduct protons and can be made of insoluble polymers or inorganic compounds, eliminating the need for salts," says Wang.

“所以我們采用固體電解質來傳導質子，可以由不溶性聚合物或無機化合物組成，從而消除了對鹽的需求。”王說。

Replacing the electrolyte with a solid matrix was just one improvement. The second was coming up with a robust catalyst to speed up the conversion process. A common challenge is keeping a catalyst right where you want it, without it degrading and needing to be replaced over time.

用固體基質代替電解液只是一個改進。第二個是提出了一個強大的催化劑，以加快轉化過程。一個常見的挑戰(zhàn)是讓催化劑保持在你想要的位置，而不會降解，并且需要隨著時間的推移更換。

Bismuth is just the catalyst for the job. Bulkier than other metals capable of the same task, it won't move about as easily. You just need enough material to turn a lab-test into an industry.

鉍是這項工作的催化劑。它比其他能夠完成同樣任務的金屬更笨重，移動起來不會那么容易。你只需要足夠的材料把實驗室測試變成一個產(chǎn)業(yè)。

The research team found a solution here as well.

研究小組在這里也找到了解決辦法。

"Currently, people produce catalysts on the milligram or gram scales," says the investigation's lead author, Chuan Xia.

“目前，人們生產(chǎn)的催化劑是毫克或克級的，”該研究的第一作者夏川說。

"We developed a way to produce them at the kilogram scale."

“我們開發(fā)了一種按公斤級生產(chǎn)的方法。”

The resulting device is engineered to channel the carbon dioxide through the catalyst where it transforms into a negatively charged molecule called formate.

產(chǎn)生的裝置被設計成通過催化劑將二氧化碳轉化成帶負電的甲酸鹽分子。

From there it diffuses into the solid electrolyte core, where it meets hydrogen ions released from a second catalytic reaction with water, resulting in a highly concentrated solution of formic acid.

甲酸鹽分子擴散到固體電解質核心，遇到氫離子釋放出的第二次催化反應與水，形成高濃度的甲酸溶液。

So far, the process has been shown to convert about 42 percent of the electricity from a power source into a chemical form that can be used in fuel cells.

到目前為止，這一過程已證明可以將大約42%的電能轉換成一種可以用于燃料電池的化學形式。

This electricity can easily come from a renewable source, such as a photovoltaic cell or a wind turbine, providing a neat new way to store energy from otherwise variable power supplies.

這種電能可以很容易地來自可再生能源，比如光伏電池或風力渦輪機，這提供了一種簡潔的新方法來存儲來自其他可變電源的能量。

"It's also fundamental in the chemical engineering industry as a feedstock for other chemicals, and a storage material for hydrogen that can hold nearly 1,000 times the energy of the same volume of hydrogen gas, which is difficult to compress," says Wang.

“在化學工程工業(yè)中，它作為其他化學物質的原料，以及一種儲存氫氣的材料，其能量幾乎是相同體積氫氣的1000倍，而氫氣很難壓縮。”王說。

"That's currently a big challenge for hydrogen fuel-cell cars."

“這是目前氫燃料電池汽車面臨的一大挑戰(zhàn)。”

Mining the atmosphere for carbon dioxide in order to satisfy our growing energy demands amid climate change sounds like a winning solution.

為了滿足我們在氣候變化中不斷增長的能源需求，在大氣中開采二氧化碳聽起來像是一個成功的解決方案。

Technology is leaping ahead in finding ways to use our overabundance in greenhouse gases to wean ourselves off polluting fuels, from finding ways to use it to charge batteries to taking a leaf from nature's page and improving on photosynthesis itself.

科技正在突飛猛進地尋找方法，利用我們過剩的溫室氣體，使我們擺脫污染燃料，從尋找方法用它來給電池充電，到從大自然的頁面上摘下一片葉子，并改善光合作用本身。

Meanwhile, other researchers are keen to turn it into a solid material resource. If not simply bury the stuff deep underground in rock form again.

同時，其他研究人員也熱衷于將其轉化為一種堅實的物質資源，而不是簡單地把這些東西埋在地下的巖石中。

However we do it, it's going to need to satisfy the economy before it does our sense of self-preservation.

無論我們怎么做，它都需要在滿足經(jīng)濟需求之前滿足我們的自我保護意識。

This research was published in Nature Energy.

這項研究發(fā)表在《自然能源》雜志上。