[Laromi]

British engineers produce amazing 'petrol from air' technology
Revolutionary new technology that produces “petrol from air” is being produced by a British firm, it emerged tonight. The company, Air Fuel Synthesis, then uses the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methanol which in turn is passed through a gasoline fuel reactor, creating petrol. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

[Shaved Monkey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ompany officials say they had produced five litres of petrol in less than three months from a small refinery in Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ColossalContrarian', 'A')ll people need to do is to start farting into plastic bags and hooking the plastic bag up to their car. You could even devise an air capture system to go in the driver and passenger seats...

[Graeme]

Company that made 'petrol from air' breakthrough 'shudders' at prospect of oil industry approaches

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')espite the interest in the breakthrough, however, the company's founder and principal investor, Professor Tony Marmont, said that he and his business colleagues would not want the oil industry to take a stake in the firm even though it is actively seeking investment partners to finance the next stage of development.

Professor Marmont, who used to work for Shell, put up half of the £1.2m used to set up the company. He said he was close to a deal with a major soft-drinks company interested in using the petrol to power its carbon-neutral vehicles.

"I would shudder at the prospect of an approach from the oil industry. My reaction would be 'I don't want to know' because I'd be fearful they would buy into the business and work to shut it down," he said.

"We've had calls offering us money from all over the world. We've never had that before. We've made the first petrol with our demonstration plant but the next stage is to build a bigger plant capable of producing one tonne of petrol a day, which means we need between £5m and £6m."

[autonomous]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ColossalContrarian', '
')All people need to do is to start farting into plastic bags and hooking the plastic bag up to their car. You could even devise an air capture system to go in the driver and passenger seats..

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Laromi', 'B')ritish engineers produce amazing 'petrol from air' technology
Revolutionary new technology that produces “petrol from air” is being produced by a British firm, it emerged tonight. The company, Air Fuel Synthesis, then uses the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methanol which in turn is passed through a gasoline fuel reactor, creating petrol. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

[radon]

Fossil fuels = CO2 + H2O + Energy (1)

CO2 + H2O + Energy (2) = Synthetic fuels

Full circle, with the exception that Energy (2) is substantially greater than Energy (1). Indeed, Kin-Dza-Dza. The worst energy balance possible. Maybe, just leave the fossil fuels untouched?

Really shows the lengths at which people are ready to go to have their personal vehicles running, no negative eroeis are a problem. Probably, there is something archetypal in the humans psychology to having a personal horse.

Actually, it may well turn out that running an electric vehicles fleet is more effective than running ICEs at eroeis that make that synthetic fuel viable.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('radon', 'F')ossil fuels = CO2 + H2O + Energy (1)

CO2 + H2O + Energy (2) = Synthetic fuels

Full circle, with the exception that Energy (2) is substantially greater than Energy (1). Indeed, Kin-Dza-Dza. The worst energy balance possible. Maybe, just leave the fossil fuels untouched?

Really shows the lengths at which people are ready to go to have their personal vehicles running, no negative eroeis are a problem. Probably, there is something archetypal in the humans psychology to having a personal horse.

Actually, it may well turn out that running an electric vehicles fleet is more effective than running ICEs at eroeis that make that synthetic fuel viable.

[radon]

Well that's a good idea then. Storing excessive Wind&Solar that otherwise lost anyway certainly makes a lot of sense in spite of the energy conversion loss.

[ROCKMAN]

From: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/silve ... 6C10719235

“Silver lining? Greenhouse gas could be vast, untapped source of energy”

Just amazing how much crap gets printed because they can toss out a sexy headline. If you waste the time to read the article: “For the proof-of-concept, the researchers used a well-known technique to bubble the gas and air through the liquid solution. That process uses more energy than the energy it produces:” Yes indeed…a great concept proved – we can create energy by using more energy than we create. IOW if we don’t use this technique we have even more energy.

But there’s hope:” "Of course you need a lot more technological development before this is a system that can be practiced." So there you have it folks: as soon as we can figure out the technology to use CO2 to make more energy than the energy input we’ll have it made. BTW even if they ever do develop the technology it still doesn’t eliminate the amount of CO2 released to the atmosphere. Just makes a better use of it before it joins the rest of it GHG brothers.

And editors actually get paid to produce such pieces.

[Tanada]

Proving yet one more time that synthetic fuel is a form of energy storage, not creation. Basic entropy, you don't get something out unless you put something in, and the input always exceeds the output.

[TheAntiDoomer]

You guys seem to be missing the point. The point of synthetic fuels is to efficiently convert solar energy into a liquid form. If you can do that even close to a 1 to 1 you have a HUGE winner, as it makes solar power an extremly powerful industry.

[kublikhan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'I') am impatient for someone somewhere to scale up these laboratory proven technologies and find out if they are practical on an industrial scale. We can test in the lab and talk about the results forever without having any real impact unless someone gets the first plant built as proof of concept and economical viability.

[TheAntiDoomer]

Exactly ^ thanks Kub!

[kublikhan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'T')he article in question/this discussion is not about storage, but rather energy carriers, solar-based synthetic fuels.

[dinopello]

CO2 + H2O + Energy (C12H22O11) = Soda Pop !

Synthetic fuel is a battery and can be useful but is not energy. As the formula implies, it is a consumer of energy.

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'C')O2 + H2O + Energy (C12H22O11) = Soda Pop !

Synthetic fuel is a battery and can be useful but is not energy. As the formula implies, it is a consumer of energy.