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A comment on Direct conversion of CO2 to solid carbon by Gallium-based liquid metals. Parent comment

Re:Direct conversion of CO2 to solid carbon by Gallium-based... by scotty79 on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @07:37AM (#29992821)
How fo you turn gallium oxide back into gallium?

Hiw do you separate it from carbon or from indium?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Direct conversion of CO2 to solid carbon by Gallium-based... by DennisP on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @08:18AM (#29993217)
From wikipedia, "Ga2O3 is an intermediate in the purification of gallium."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium(III)_oxide

So we'd turn the gallium oxide back into gallium the same way we did in the first place, when we made the gallium. I'm guessing we can also come up with chemical reactions for the other two.

However, you're right that gallium production is quite low. It's a byproduct of zinc production from bauxite, and we get only a few hundred tons per year. Wikipedia doesn't say what the potential might be if we gallium were the main product.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium#Production_and_availab...

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Re:Direct conversion of CO2 to solid carbon by Gallium-based... by Suchos on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @09:40AM (#29994100)
You would still need to spend a lot of energy for the process, which brings us to the beginning. This could maybe be used when we have fully renewable enegry in excess to pull some carbon out of atmosphere.
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Re:Direct conversion of CO2 to solid carbon by Gallium-based... by scotty79 on Thursday January 20, 2022 @02:32AM (#30005881)
Can we do it while it's still mixed with indium?

Is gallium oxide dissolved in EGaIn?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Direct conversion of CO2 to solid carbon by Gallium-based... by Iwan-Zotow on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @08:08AM (#29993111)
> How do you turn gallium oxide back into gallium?

electricity? Cathode and Anode?

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