Scientists Discover Method for Reversing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Coal

Researchers can now remove carbon dioxide gas from the air and turn it back into solid carbon.

carbon coal global warming
Scientists have developed a method for turning carbon into coal. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says 100 billion to 1 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide must be removed from the atmosphere to avoid catastrophic global warming. And now scientists have pioneered a method that could be instrumental in achieving that goal, Big Think reports.

“While we can’t literally turn back time, turning carbon dioxide back into coal and burying it back in the ground is a bit like rewinding the emissions clock,” Dr. Torben Daeneke, a co-author of the study, told The Independent. “To date, CO2 has only been converted into a solid at extremely high temperatures, making it industrially unviable.”

The below RMIT video describes the method of using liquid metals to turn the greenhouse gas back into solid carbon:

“The process also produces synthetic fuel as a by-product, which could also have industrial applications,” said Dorna Esrafilzadeh, RMIT’s School of Engineering’s Vice Chancellor. She hopes to use the fuel to power future vehicles.

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