Reduction of Water and CO2

High-Flux Solar-Driven Thermochemical Dissociation of CO2 and H2O Using Non Stoichiometric Ceria by Wm Chueh, Chris Falter et al  Cal Tech; Science 24 Dec 2010 No 6012 p1797

The authors demonstrate a concentration of sunlight on porous Ceria with temperatures up to 1500C, stripping oxygen from CO2 and from water and yielding CO, O2 and H2. (Bypassing the plant cycle of converting CO2 and water into O2 and hydrocarbons. We thrive on the O2 and utilize the carbon for food and fuel.)

Oil was a cheap, abundant, exploitable resource driving our industrial economy. High prices and peak oil ended our long industrial buildup of wealth. We have been steadily pissing away that wealth and will continue to do so until we build out a similar cheap, abundant, exploitable energy source.

Electricity is that source, and solar is an unlimited free and sustainable source of electricity. However, storage of electricity for night time use and some economic means of converting free solar -- or wind for that matter. It's intermittent also. -- into electricity remains an engineering challenge and an economic imperative. These researchers may have hit on a way forward.

In one fell swoop, this technique scrubs CO2 from the atmosphere or other source and with water produces hydrogen, a clean fuel or battery, and CO itself an oxidizable fuel or the building block for any number of carbon compounds, plastics and other materials.

CO would need to be scrubbed from the effluent, however, not good for man or beast and not for the atmosphere. The O2 byproduct is a bonus.