Carbon capture and utilization in the soil permanently. A carbon-neutral fuel can be synthesized by using the captured CO from the atmosphere as the main hydrocarbon source. The fuel is then combusted and CO, as the byproduct of the combustion process, is released back into the air. In this process, there is no net carbon dioxide released or removed from the atmosphere, hence the name carbon-neutral fuel. An example of the technology include biofuel from microalgae as discussed below. Methanol, or ethyl alcohol, is the simplest member of the family of alcohol organic compound with a chemical formula of CHOH. Methanol fuel can be
Hydrogen storage technology. As of 2010, the BMW Group has started a thorough component and system level validation of cryo-compressed vehicle storage on its way to a commercial product. Hydrogen carriers based on nanostructured carbon (such as carbon buckyballs and nanotubes) have been proposed. However, since Hydrogen usually amounts up to ~3.0-7.0 wt% at 77K which is far from the value set by US department of Energy (6 wt% at nearly ambient conditions), it makes carbon materials poor candidates for hydrogen storage. To realize carbon materials as effective hydrogen storage technologies, the Clean Energy Research Center has doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with