Researchers at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, Germany have developed an experimental process to convert the green-house gas, carbon dioxide, CO_2, into ethanol, aka C₂H₅OH. This is done by introducing copper and zinc oxide catalysts to reduce carbon dioxide into ethanol.

Outside of alcoholic beverages, ethanol is used as an additive in gasoline to produce gasohol. The conversion of CO₂ to ethanol directly would help solve two problems at once.

One it would possibly help reduce the atmospheric concentration of CO₂, and secondly, it may put an end to the idiotic practice of putting food into the gas tanks of cars and trucks.

Trivia: Alcohol or ethanol is second only to caffeine as the most consumed drug on the planet. Stimulants vs. depressants. We can’t make up our minds, so to speak.

Source: Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society. Graphic: A carbon dioxide molecule.