"For a plant making liquid fuel from coal, rather than using carbon monoxide and hydrogen as intermediates, which is the current method (in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and Sasol's processes - JtM), one can reduce the overall carbon dioxide emissions by using carbon dioxide and hydrogen as intermediates in the process, say the researchers."
"That example showed, paradoxically, if you use hydrogen and carbon dioxide, which looks like a worse alternative, you could actually do better," says Glasser (Prof. David Glasser, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa - JtM)."
"The example stated already reaches beyond mere research, and Glasser says that there is a pilot plant running in China and a demonstration plant in Australia, which incorporate these ideas."
The CO2 used as an intermediate for liquid fuel production can be generated intentionally as syngas from coal in a coal-to-liquid plant, or collected from coal power or coal-to-liquid plant incidental emissions, or sucked from the atmosphere itself. The Hydrogen can be electrolyzed from water - generating clean and green pure Oxygen as a by-product.