--- title: Climate Change: Carbon Capture Method Creates Ethanol description: Scientists discovered a new method to convert carbon to ethanol, a finding that could aid the development of methods to fight climate change canonical: https://time.com/4536708/carbon-dioxide-ethanol/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-19T16:46:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:16:55.324Z article:section: Science og:title: Scientists Accidentally Discover Method to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol og:description: The new method could play a key role in helping scientists fight climate change og:url: https://time.com/4536708/carbon-dioxide-ethanol/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4471fe74d064a50f/6988aaa2e20a876b57a92dac/carbon-dioxide.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Coal Fossil Fuel Power Plant Smokestacks Emit Carbon Dioxide Pollution og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Accidentally Discover Method to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol twitter:description: The new method could play a key role in helping scientists fight climate change twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4471fe74d064a50f/6988aaa2e20a876b57a92dac/carbon-dioxide.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Accidentally Discover Method to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 19, 2016 4:46 PM UTC  Fossil fuel emissions are warming the planet. Fossil fuel emissions are warming the planet. Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Oct 19, 2016 4:46 PM UTC A team of scientists in Tennessee accidentally discovered a [new method](https://www.ornl.gov/news/nano-spike-catalysts-convert-carbon-dioxide-directly-ethanol) to convert carbon dioxide to ethanol, a finding that could aid the development of new methods to fight climate change. The finding comes from a group of scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) who created a catalyst out of carbon, copper and nitrogen. Scientists added the catalyst and voltage to carbon dioxide to create ethanol. ORNL researcher Adam Rondinone, the study’s lead author, describes the discovery as “pushing \[the\] combustion reaction backwards.” “By using common materials, but arranging them with nanotechnology, we figured out how to limit the side reactions and end up with the one thing that we want,” said Rondinone in a press release. **Read More**: [Your Utility Company Wants to Sell You More than Just Electricity](http://time.com/4312285/utility-company-electricity-solar-power/) Carbon dioxide is the key greenhouse gas causing man-made climate change and the primary target of most rules and regulations aimed at addressing the issue. But scientists increasingly have warned that to keep global warming from reaching unsafe levels humans will need to develop methods to take the gas out of the atmosphere. Many proposals have focused on carbon capture and storage, which would store carbon dioxide underground, but that method has proved costly. The scientists behind the ORNL study say that the process they created in the lab could be easily scaled to an industrial level. Energy companies could use ethanol produced from carbon dioxide as a [low-cost battery](http://time.com/4291347/crescent-dunes-solar-power-plant/) to store electricity produced from solar or wind power plants, according to the researchers. **Read More**: [Why Climate Change Could Hurt Power Production](http://time.com/4167370/climate-change-power-production/) “A process like this would allow you to consume extra electricity when it’s available to make and store as ethanol,” Rondinone said. “This could help to balance a grid supplied by intermittent renewable sources.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4536708/carbon-dioxide-ethanol/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4536708/carbon-dioxide-ethanol/"},"headline":"Scientists Accidentally Discover Method to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol","datePublished":"2016-10-19T16:46:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:16:55.324Z","description":"The new method could play a key role in helping scientists take carbon dioxide out of the air to fight climate change","url":"https://time.com/4536708/carbon-dioxide-ethanol/","keywords":["energy","climate change"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4471fe74d064a50f/6988aaa2e20a876b57a92dac/carbon-dioxide.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4471fe74d064a50f/6988aaa2e20a876b57a92dac/carbon-dioxide.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Coal Fossil Fuel Power Plant Smokestacks Emit Carbon Dioxide Pollution","caption":"Fossil fuel emissions are warming the planet.","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/energy/","name":"energy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4536708/carbon-dioxide-ethanol/","name":"Scientists Accidentally Discover Method to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol"}}]}] ```