A startup company backed by energy giant Shell has developed a method to turn carbon dioxide into fuel by adding fake sunlight.

US company Dimensional Energy has developed an “artificial photosynthesis” process with a photoreactor that converts carbon dioxide, using sunlight and water, into synthetic fuels and gases like methanol.

The process turns captured carbon emissions into a usable fuel like syngas or methanol. Credit:Jonathan Carroll

The company was created at Cornell University, in the US, and aims to turn the former waste CO2 into a new profit stream with the HI-LIGHT solar-thermocatalytic “reverse combustion” technology.

“We want to create a carbon dioxide refinery on an industrial scale,” Jason Salfi, Dimensional Energy’s chief executive, said.