Imaginary map of solar methanol island

According to scientists, “solar methanol islands” — millions of huge islands floating in the ocean that can convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into methanol — can suppress fossil fuel emissions and help protect our climate. If there are enough of these proposed islands, they will gather together to build large-scale facilities to offset the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated by global fossil fuels.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a group of researchers from Norway and Switzerland proposed the construction of a “solar methanol island”. The article believes that the technology required to build these facilities and deploy them on a large scale in marine areas is safe, and they are not affected by heavy waves and extreme weather. In this way, the demand for fossil fuels may be greatly reduced, thereby limiting global warming to a certain range in the future.

"If we want to avoid dangerous climate change trends, humans must prevent carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels."

They wrote. "However, liquid carbon-based energy carriers often do not have practical alternatives in important mobile applications. The use of renewable energy to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into synthetic fuel provides a zero-carbon energy concept."

Andreas Borgschulte, author of the study, told Newsweek that making renewable energy competing with fossil fuels on a large scale is one of the main problems. In efforts to make renewable energy a realistic choice, several concepts have been tested, but no method has been found. He said that Norwegian researchers thought of building solar islands when the government asked them to push fish farms to the high seas. However, the operation of these grids requires energy. He said: "The proposal to" energy-produce "islands has been made long ago. The rest includes solving problems such as energy storage."

"This is something we should do to control climate change," said Bruce Patterson, a physicist at the University of Zurich and one of the authors of this paper. "For now, this is just a puzzle."

Patterson envisioned that such a floating solar power plant could produce 15,000 tons or more of methanol per year, enough to fuel a Boeing 737 airliner with 300 round-trip flights between New York City and Phoenix. "We mainly want to use these fuels in aircraft, long-distance trucks, ships and non-electrified railway systems," he added.

In this paper, according to researchers, floating islands are similar to large floating fishing grounds. Photovoltaic cells will be used to convert solar energy into electricity, thereby helping water molecules split into hydrogen and extract carbon dioxide from seawater. These generated gases will then be reacted to produce methanol, which will eventually produce a commonly used fuel. "This will be easily transported to the end consumer," they wrote.

According to the team ’s vision, the floating solar field will consist of about a group of 70 circular artificial solar panel islands with an area of ​​about one square kilometer (0.4 square miles). In the mid-wave action area where the sun is abundant, the wave height is less than 7 meters, and the shallow water area is less than 600 meters deep, the floating island can be tied to the bottom of the sea. The probability of encountering hurricanes and bad weather is very low. These places are suitable for placing facilities. The research team has selected some areas suitable for the installation of floating islands globally, including parts of the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, South American coast, Australia, Spain and Southeast Asia.

According to the team ’s estimates, the output of 3.2 million floating islands will exceed the total global fossil fuel emissions.

The team admits that the proposal is "ambitious" and that the relevant design work has not even been completed. At present, scientists are studying the prototype of floating islands.

"The (biggest) challenge is to develop a large-scale device for extracting carbon dioxide from seawater," Boschult said. "This process is the only one in the entire system that has not yet been fully developed. All other components are already on an industrial scale."

Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University who did not participate in the study, said that the proposed solar power plant would not touch the root causes of the climate crisis.

"Some people think that the only problem in the world is to reduce carbon dioxide, but this is not all," he said. "The problem is air pollution, energy security and carbon emissions. You have to solve these three problems at the same time. This is a very narrow solution to the climate problem, so for me, this idea is wrong."

Peter Edwards, a professor of inorganic chemistry who did not participate in the study, said that although the scientific basis behind the study is reliable, the technical obstacles to be overcome are also huge. He told "Newsweek" that although the authors recognize and admit this to a certain extent, "I think the challenge is beyond what they see, especially the material-how solar panels operate in the marine environment (Chemical and Physical issues) and how the reaction facility can achieve the required scale on offshore platforms. "

However, Edwards believes that "as long as reputable scientists and engineers are committed to solving real problems", this proposal should not be ignored.

(Originally from: Energy Saving and the Integration of China's New Energy Network in the Future)

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