Something exciting is happening with NASA technology which one day may have practical future applications on Earth. Image: Courtesy NASA.
On September 1, 2022, the Washington Post reported "NASA'S toaster-sized device can make oxygen on Mars." It reported that researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "showed that the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment ("MOXIE") can convert the potent greenhouse gas into oxygen."
The study was published in the journal Science Advances August 31, 2022, Edition, which explains that the Perseverance Rover Mission, which landed on the Red Planet in February 2021, has a "small box" on it, which the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT developed, state, "can make enough oxygen to match the output of a small tree on Earth."
This emerging technology, which utilizes solid oxide electrolysis of C02 is not yet ready for prime time on our planetary neighbor to support human exploration, but advances in production, size and scale are likely to result as NASA learns more about the conversion process.
There are challenges. According to the Science Advances research paper, the Mars atmosphere contains approximately 95 percent carbon dioxide. National Geographic estimates the Earth's atmosphere is made up of 21 percent oxygen. Despite the complexities, the process is, however, something that can be accomplished for our skies.
Scientific American, on July 9, 2009, published a comment by James E. Miller, a chemical engineer at the Sandia National Laboratories. Mr. Miller noted that the conversion process can be accomplished, but energy is required to achieve the production of oxygen. He points out, "If hydrocarbon fuels, which produce the greenhouse gas in the first place, supply that energy, thermodynamics tells us that the net result will be more C02 than you started with."
Question: to avoid the use of hydrocarbons, why not use C02 electrolysis on Earth to create devices which can be utilized in the built environment, such as buildings, houses, offices and factories? Electrolysis requires an electrical current. That current can be obtained by harnessing inexpensive solar energy.
The potential for what this technology can do here: The production of oxygen to convert carbon dioxide into a harmless atmospheric gas will eventually result in a commercial industry which will produce consumer size converters. These future devices, when scaled economically to affordable costs, can be worthwhile tools in the fight against our over-heated Earth. While it would take perhaps millions of such oxygen generating systems to make a difference, it is another way to stop increasing C02 atmospheric deposits. Economically scaled to consumer and business uses, this strategy can make a difference.
While this process is not a carbon dioxide sequestration tool, such devices can be used in conjunction with carbon capture strategies.
The question is who is in their garage right now, making such a device?
Editor's Note: The video below is courtesy Seeker and was produced in 2020. It describes in detail the MOXIE mission and provides excellent illustrations of the electrolysis process.
--By Mitch Chester. First posted 9.3.22.
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