Can we?

[science4life]

I was just wondering...can we use methane and carbon dioxide as fuels? Because if we could, it would most probably decrease the rate/amount of global warming. Keeping in mind that carbon dioxide and methane are the biggest problem greenhouse gases being emitted in the world.

It doesn't help to think that since these two gases are emitted naturally given that most organisms expire carbon dioxide and grass eating animals also expire methane. As methane is a byproduct of the break down of grass. The world has enough of these gases being emitted naturally and it also has to put up with our creations emitting these gases. Yes there are more greenhouse gases in the world being emitted but as I said before methane and carbon dioxide are the largest contributors.

So if we could (or can) use carbon dioxide and methane as fuels to run transport and so forth. This would decrease the amount of global warming to some percentage wouldn't it?

(Correct me if I am wrong in anything by the way)

[Read-Only]

I was just wondering...can we use methane and carbon dioxide as fuels? Because if we could, it would most probably decrease the rate/amount of global warming. Keeping in mind that carbon dioxide and methane are the biggest problem greenhouse gases being emitted in the world.

It doesn't help to think that since these two gases are emitted naturally given that most organisms expire carbon dioxide and grass eating animals also expire methane. As methane is a byproduct of the break down of grass. The world has enough of these gases being emitted naturally and it also has to put up with our creations emitting these gases. Yes there are more greenhouse gases in the world being emitted but as I said before methane and carbon dioxide are the largest contributors.

So if we could (or can) use carbon dioxide and methane as fuels to run transport and so forth. This would decrease the amount of global warming to some percentage wouldn't it?

(Correct me if I am wrong in anything by the way :blush

You can use methane as fuel (that's the main component in natural gas) but certainly NOT carbon dioxide. CO2 is carbon that has already been oxidixed (burned) so there's no available energy left in it.

[science4life]

Thanks

[Ziazan]

methane is used as fuel already.

[Pez11]

You can use methane as fuel (that's the main component in natural gas) but certainly NOT carbon dioxide. CO2 is carbon that has already been oxidixed (burned) so there's no available energy left in it.

It's not a matter of no "energy left". All compounds have energy stored within the bonds between the atoms. Its a matter of how much energy is needed to break the bonds to release the stored energy. Strong bonds require more energy than what would be released, ending in a net loss.