https://doi.org/10.33805/2641-7383.121

Volume 4 Issue 1 | PDF 122 | Pages 2

Edelweiss Chemical
Science Journal
Research Article

ISSN: 2641-7383

Direct Fixation of Atmospheric CO2 towards Chemical
Synthesis of Fuel Hydrocarbon
Tadayuki Imanaka1*, Tadashi Takemoto1 and Hiroyuki Imanaka2
Affiliation
1

The Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
Division of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Japan*
Corresponding author: Tadayuki Imanaka, The Research Organization of Science and Technology, Techno-Complex Rm244,Ritsumeikan University, Noji-Higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan, E-mail: imanaka@sk.ritsumei.ac.jp
Citation: Imanaka T, Takemoto T and Imanaka H. Direct fixation of atmospheric co2 towards chemical synthesis of fuel hydrocarbon (2021)
Edelweiss Chem Sci J 4: 1-2.
Received: Dec 24, 2020
Accepted: Jan 22, 2021
Published: Jan 26, 2021
Copyright: © 2021 Imanaka T, et al., This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
2Abstract
We have reported that fuel hydrocarbon was chemically synthesized from CO2 and activated water. In this report, we show the direct evidence ofCO2 fixation from air. CO2 in the air is composed of about 99 % 12C, about 1% 13C, and about one trillionth radioisotope 14C. The extremely trace
amount of 14C was measured with liquid scintillation counter by following beta-decay. The newly synthesized hydrocarbon revealed 14.6
dpm/gC. These facts clearly demonstrate direct fixation of atmospheric CO2 toward hydrocarbon synthesis.
Keywords: CO2 fixation, Measurement of 14C, Beta-decay of 14C, Fuel hydrocarbon
Abbreviations: TD-Tetradecane, CLO-Commercial Light Oil, AC1~10-Amplification cycle 1~10, DPM-Disintegration Per MinuteIntroduction
Our planet is in trouble because of global warming, the heating ofearth’s surface, oceans and atmosphere. Glaciers are melting, sea levels
are rising, and wild fires and heat waves are getting more severe.
Carbon dioxide is one of the major greenhouse gases. To avoid globalwarming, a significant shift from "low carbon" to "decarbonization"society is necessary. From this standpoint, we have published chemical
synthesis of fuel hydrocarbon from CO2 and activated water [1]. In
fossil materials such as all mineral oil or the products, the 14C contents
could decay over millions of years, therefore no 14C can be detected
anymore [2]. On the other hand, in fixation of atmospheric CO2, thesynthesized organic materials should contain 14C. In the chemical
synthesis of oil, origin of CO2 was thought to be atmospheric air, butscientific evidence was not proved. CO2 in the air is composed of about
99% 12C, about 1% 13C, and about one trillionth radioisotope 14C.
Firstly, we tried to use 13C-CO2. However, noise of background was
not negligible. Thereafter, we decided to measure beta-decay of 14C
incorporated in newly synthesized hydrocarbon.

Materials and Methods
According to the previously mentioned method (1), new oil wassynthesized as follows. In this process, oxygen gas is converted toozone, and further to reactive oxygen species such as superoxide anion
radicals and hydroxyl radicals. The reactive oxygen species may
reduce carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, as follows,
2CO2 ⇒ 2CO +O2

reaction 1

By using TiO2 photocatalyst, H2O was decomposed into H2 and O2 as
follows,
2H2O ⇒ 2H2+O2
reaction 2
As a total,
CO2+H2O ⇒ CO+H2+O2
reaction 3
The oil generation reaction may occur as radical polymerization inemulsion and be written as follows,
nCO＋(2n＋1)H2 ⇒ CnH2n＋2＋nH2O

reaction 4

At each amplification cycle, volume and weight of oil and activatedwater were measured before and after the cycle. Then real increase ofoil was recorded. Oil should be added in this reaction, because it is atemplate synthesis [1]. Analytical data and characteristics of newly
generated oil and original oil have been compared and reported in thisjournal [1]. Concentration of the atmospheric CO2 is 407 ppm which
was reported by world meteorological organization in 2019(https://gaw.kishou.go.jp/) [3].
After each cycle of oil amplification, 10 ml sample was mixed with 10ml of scintillation cocktail (Ultima Gold F, PerkinElmer, USA).
Hitachi ALOKA Accuflex LSC-7200 was used for scintillation
counting. Measurement time was 300 min. Since hydrocarbon is weekquencher, the newly synthesized oil was measured as soon as possible
for liquid scintillation counting. Carbon content of oil was measured byusing MICRO CORDER JM11 (J-SCIENCE LAB CO) and Flash
Smart Organic Elemental Analyzer (Thermo Fisher Scientific CO).
Weighing balance used was MSA 2.7S-000-DM (SARTORIUS
JAPAN CO).

Citation: Imanaka T, Takemoto T and Imanaka H. Direct fixation of atmospheric CO2 towards
chemical synthesis of fuel hydrocarbon (2021) Edelweiss Chem Sci J 4: 1-2.
1Imanaka T, et al. Edelweiss Chemical Science Journal, 2021 PDF: 122, 4:1

Results and Discussion

Conclusion

Chemical synthesis of hydrocarbon

The 14C content of newly synthesized hydrocarbon was measured byliquid scintillation counting. These data clearly showed that
atmospheric CO2 was directly fixed into hydrocarbon. This process
must contribute to decarbonization society in the future.

Commercial light oil was purchased from gasoline station and used forfirst chemical synthesis of hydrocarbon. The mixture of original light
oil and newly synthesized oil is called as Amplification Cycle 1 (AC1).
AC1 sample was used for the second synthesis. Likewise, the chemicalsynthesis was repeated ten times (from AC1 to AC10). Volume andweight of oil and activated water were carefully measured before andafter each cycle. The increased % of oil (indicated as red circle) wasaccumulated ten times (Figure 1). The total increase of AC10 wasaround 46.2 %.

References
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Imanaka T and Takemoto T. chemical synthesis of fuelhydrocarbon from co2 and activated water, and purification ofcommercial light oil for dream oil (2019) Edelweiss Chem. Sci J
2: 23-26. https://doi.org/10.33805/2641-7383.111
Edler R and Kaihola L. Determination of the 14C content in fuelscontaining bioethanol and other biogenic materials with liquid
scintillation counting (2007) LSC Application Note 43,
PerkinElmer, United States.
World Meteorological Organization (Global AtmosphereWatch).
Fuma S, Inoue Y, Sato N and Hirano M. Report National
Institue of Radiological Sciences (1998) Annual Report 6-9,
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Saito M, Nakamura M and Yamazaki M. Report Tokyo
Metropolitan Industrial Technology Research Institute (2009)
Annual Report 16-19, Japan

Figure 1: Result of DPM measurements. The increased % of oil(indicated as red circle) was accumulated ten times.

Measurement of 14C in synthesized hydrocarbon
Since the amount of 14C in the atmospheric CO2 is about one trillionth,
the extremely low concentration of radioisotope 14C has to be measured
with Liquid Scintillation Counting (LSC) [3]. The direct measurementof an organic sample in the LSC is always advantageous if a sample
such as newly synthesized oil can be dissolved in the scintillation
cocktail such as Ultima Gold F (PerkinElmer, USA). The organicsample should also show no or only little color. We adopted extremely
long counting times (300 min). The incorporation of 14C into new oil
increased as amplification cycle increased (Figure 1). About 4.6
dpm/gC was determined at 46.2% increase of oil, where carbon contentof oil was measured as 86.04%. As the volume of original fossil oil
was increased up to 1.462 times, real value of true incorporated
radioisotope in synthesized oil is 4.6 × 1.462 ÷ 0.462=14.6 dpm/gC.
When 14C content in ethanol of Japanese wine was measured, theaverage content was 15.1 dpm/gC [4]. It was also reported that 14C
content in ethanol of various liqueurs including brandy, whisky, vodkaetc. ranged from 16 to18 dpm/gC [5]. Therefore, 14.6 dpm/gC of oil isnearly the same level with biogenic material. These data clearly showsthat atmospheric CO2 was fixed to form new oil. It is sure that a seriesof these experiments contribute to carbon neutrality.

Citation: Imanaka T, Takemoto T and Imanaka H. Direct fixation of atmospheric CO2 towards chemical
synthesis of fuel hydrocarbon (2021) Edelweiss Chem Sci J 4: 1-2.
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