Technology to watch: Use Sunlight to Make Fuel From CO2

You know, I was wondering the other day if there could be a way to do what photosynthesis does, industrially, and make CO2 into carbohydrates. Well, blow me, if there's been some research going on to do this and proof of concept has been achieved,now they're building a prototype.

The prototype will be about the size and shape of a beer keg. It will contain 14 cobalt ferrite rings, each about one foot in diameter and turning at one revolution per minute. An 88-square meter solar furnace will blast sunlight into the unit, heating the rings to about 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature, cobalt ferrite releases oxygen. When the rings cool to about 2,000 degrees, they're exposed to CO2.
Since the cobalt ferrite is now missing oxygen, it snatches some from the CO2, leaving behind just carbon monoxide -- a building block for making hydrocarbons -- that can then be used to make methanol or gasoline. And with the cobalt ferrite restored to its original state, the device is ready for another cycle.
Fuels like methanol and gasoline are combinations of hydrogen and carbon that are relatively easy to synthesize, Stechel said. Methanol is the easiest, and that's where they will start, but gasoline could also be made.

It'll take 15 years or so to get it commercial, though. But it does offer the prospect of power stations burning oil or coal and recovering some of the CO2 to reburn as hydrocarbons...
Scientists Use Sunlight to Make Fuel From CO2: