A new method for producing electricity from waste carbon dioxide emitted by power stations could be so efficient that it has the potential to create 400 times the amount of power that the Hoover Dam generates in a year, Dutch scientists have claimed.
Researchers from the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology in the Netherlands believe they have come up with a new technique to unlock the power of waste carbon dioxide pumped out of current power plants.
Their system involves mixing water and other liquids with combustion gas comprising a high concentration of carbon dioxide that are pumped between two membranes to produce an electric current.
Described in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, the method uses waste gases from power stations and industrial smoke stacks as a raw material to generate electricity.
The scientists said that over 12 billion tons of carbon dioxide is created annually from coal, oil and natural gas power stations, while home and commercial heating systems generate another 11 billion tons of the greenhouse gas.