Researchers convert CO2 into isobutanol using electricity

Currently, electrical energy generated by various methods is still difficult to store efficiently. Chemical batteries, hydraulic pumping and water splitting suffer from low-energy-density storage or incompatibility with current transportation infrastructure.

In a study published on 30 March in the journal Science, James Liao, UCLA’s Ralph M Parsons Foundation Chair in Chemical Engineering, and his team report a method for storing electrical energy as chemical energy in higher alcohols, which can be used as liquid transportation fuels.

‘The current way to store electricity is with lithium-ion batteries, in which the density is low, but when you store it in liquid fuel the density could actually be very high,’ Liao said in a statement. ‘In addition, we have the potential to use electricity as transportation fuel without needing to change current infrastructure.’

Liao and his team are said to have genetically engineered a lithoautotrophic micro-organism (Ralstonia eutropha H16) to produce isobutanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol in an electro-bioreactor using CO₂ as the sole carbon source and electricity as the sole energy input.