asolar cell breakthrough has the potential to render fossil fuels obsolete while at the same time reversing some of the damage such fuels have done to the atmosphere, new research suggests.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) created a catalyst that uses the sun’s energy to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into burnable hydrocarbon fuel.

“Instead of producing energy in an unsustainable one-way route from fossil fuels to greenhouse gas, we can now reverse the process and recycle atmospheric carbon into fuel using sunlight,” said Amin Salehi-Khojin, an assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at UIC.

Salehi-Khojin and his colleague’s findings are published in the July 29 issue of the journal Scienceand a patent application for the technology has been filed.