Carbon Dioxide is the substance most emitted into our air from burning fuel. There is so much we don’t know what to do with it all. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 and the United States Department of Energy has given over 100 million dollars to research projects for figuring out where we can use all the carbon dioxide we are producing. The simplest thing to do is give it back to trees and plants so they can make more trees and plants. Or just use it to carbonate drinks. But these research projects will be focusing on turning CO2 into fuel, plastics and cement. Cornell University in New York has a center that turns CO2 into polymer that can be used in plastics to make things like packaging and utensils. Some companies are working to turn carbon dioxide into carbonates such as sodium, ammonium, potassium, etc, to make construction materials like cement. Research is also being done to make CO2 into soluble bicarbonate and carbonate to be used in fertilizer. The carbonate itself is not the fertilizer. Calcium carbonate, for example, can be used to soil pH. Potassium carbonate helps supply the potassium to the plant. Algae with captured carbon dioxide is also going to be used to create biofuels, which can be blended with other fuels for power generation. The ideas are there and research is starting to get on its way. CO2 emissions may not end up being so terrible after all.
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