Name: This machine takes office-air CO₂ and turns it into fuel
Brand: arstechnica.com
SKU: arstechnica-com-240
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

This machine takes office-air CO₂ and turns it into fuel

preview

At Ars, we get a lot of pitches from start-ups that want to talk about their products. At least for this science reporter, the feeling is rarely mutual. But once in a while, something piques my curiosity. Something like… carbon capture for an office HVAC system.Over a video call, Finnish start-up Soletair Power recently showed off a unit operating in its office. It had been built for the 2020 World Expo in Dubai, but, well, you know what has happened to expos. Instead of powering an expo booth, there was a gas-powered espresso maker bolted onto the unit—since this machine turns CO2 into methane fuel.The value proposition for the first part of the device is pretty straightforward. Carbon dioxide accumulates in buildings full of people, and higher CO2 concentrations your ability to . The usual way to manage that is to introduce more outside air (which may need to be heated/cooled). Another could be to selectively filter out CO2. This device could do the latter for you.That CO2 could simply be vented outside or used to produce an unwieldy amount of seltzer. Instead, what makes Soletair’s idea more interesting is that the rest of its device turns the&nbsp;CO2 into fuel. The configuration the company demonstrated makes methane but could be swapped for a liquid fuel . Depending on the source of the energy running the machines, these fuels could be carbon-neutral since the carbon comes from the air. Whether it’s economically viable is another question.The CO2 capture technique they’re using is a scaled-down version of those designed for combustion power plants. Air goes through a chamber full of small granules that contain amines—compounds that bind with CO2 molecules. Periodically, the granules are cycled through a heating step. The temperature only needs to rise to shy of 120°C, Soletair’s Petri Laakso and Cyril Bajamundi told Ars, so steam from the local heat system and/or an electric heating element is sufficient. This makes the amine granules release the CO2 they’re holding, which accumulates in a storage tank. The granules are then ready to absorb more CO2.The other two-thirds of the machine, which measures about 2 meters tall, 5 meters long, and 1 meter wide, deal with turning that CO2 into a usable fuel. First, there’s an electrolyzer that splits water to make hydrogen gas. Then hydrogen is combined with CO2 in a methanation reactor to produce pure methane gas.The Soletair had a Bunsen burner roaring for this demonstration, and the company mentioned having run a cook stove in the office previously. (And of course there’s that espresso maker…) The viability of this whole concept pivots on the fuel providing value somewhere.As a CO2 filter, this unit is built to handle a standard HVAC flow of about 3 cubic meters of air per second. That can serve an office building with a few hundred occupants, Soletair says. In the company's own, smaller office, the filter was taking in air with about 500 parts per million CO2 and cutting that concentration in half.Generating fuel is not a common office building function, though. If you have an on-site use for it (heating? vehicles?), the prospect might interest you. But Soletair also said that its local gas utility is amenable to having it sent into the public supply network—like net metering of solar electricity but for gas. It doesn’t sound like that scheme risks running a profit, but it could offset some cost.The “air to fuels” idea is being pursued by companies that are designing industrial-scale carbon-capture facilities. It’s interesting to see that attempted in a much smaller package, albeit with the focus shifted away from fuels production and toward indoor air quality. As with all forms of carbon capture, placing a cost on carbon emissions could improve the economics of expenditures that reduce emissions. But in this case, Soletair is primarily selling something other than the societal climate benefit—though making your own fuel is a fun add-on.You must to comment.

At Ars, we get a lot of pitches from start-ups that want to talk about their products. At least for this science reporter, the feeling is rarely mutual. But once in a while, something piques my curiosity. Something like… carbon capture for an office HVAC system.Over a video call, Finnish start-up Soletair Power recently showed off a unit operating in its office. It had been built for the 2020 World Expo in Dubai, but, well, you know what has happened to expos. Instead of powering an expo booth, there was a gas-powered espresso maker bolted onto the unit—since this machine turns CO2 into...

public

Scott K. Johnson

Ars Technica is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Many of the site's writers are postgraduates and some work for research institutions. Articles on the website are written in a less-formal tone than those in traditional journals. Ars Technica was privately owned until May 2008, when it was sold to Condé Nast Digital, the online division of Condé Nast Publications.

This machine takes office-air CO₂ and turns it into fuel

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS