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Very interesting work. What they developed essentially is a way to store renewable energy.

They take CO2, H2O and electricity from renewable sources to create their fuel. The secret here is the catalyst they developed. The fuel is liquid, thus stored easily.

In order to use it they use a reverse chemical process which creates H2 and CO2. The H2 burns with oxygen (and releases part of the stored energy) to produce H2O and thus they end with the elements they used in the first step.

If in its currrent capacitiy can be used for transportation, it probably can be used for many other things as well.




So the catalyst isn't renewable. How much of that do they need? What are the costs, and energy put into that?


> So the catalyst isn't renewable

Is it not? Not being used up is kind of the definition of "catalyst" though, so while it might need maintenance/recycling (due to mechanical changes, or contamination) it probably can be reused after processing.


I didn't make any statement about the catalyst's attributes but I indeed mistakenly attributed its creation to this team.

The catalyst was developed in EPFL and is renewable. I believe this is the one: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5017




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