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Scientists successfully generate gasoline out of thin air
Breakthrough technology takes carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from CO2 and water in the air to create methanol and then converts it into gasoline.
Thu, Oct 25 2012 at 12:46 AM
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Gasoline is the quintessential non-renewable fuel, but British scientists could soon change that. They have developed a way to make gasoline not only renewable, but also carbon neutral. How is that possible? By plucking the fuel out of the air, according to New Scientist.
It sounds like alchemy or magic — an idea about as sensible as growing money on trees. But it's real. Researchers have developed a way to convert air into gasoline. In fact, the concept has been around for decades, ever since the oil crisis of the 1970s.
Here's basically how it works: first scientists collect carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from the CO2 and water that are readily present in the air. These raw materials are all that are needed to generate methanol, and methanol can be converted into gasoline.
It seems so simple that you may wonder why we haven't been getting our gasoline this way all along. Well, that's because there's just one small complication: So far scientists haven't been able to prove that the process generates more energy than it requires. The technique requires electricity for its chemical conversions, and the process cannot be viable until it is demonstrated that the energy needed as input costs less than what is gained as output.
That's where British company Air Fuel Synthesis comes in. The company has taken on the task of demonstrating that the technique works, that it produces a viable fuel, and that it can be made energy-efficient. The first half of the equation has now been settled, as the company has successfully demonstrated the conversion process.
"I take my hat off to Air Fuel Synthesis. They have taken a concept that has been around for 35 years and gotten the process going," said Peter Edwards, an inorganic chemist at the University of Oxford.
The fuel is not only viable; the company believes it will be suitable for high-performance vehicles. But the biggest benefit of the fuel is its sustainability. Since burning the fuel only releases the same carbon dioxide that was already in the air to begin with, it is carbon neutral. (That is, so long as the electricity required to make the necessary chemical conversions is sourced from renewable energy like wind or solar.)
Another potential benefit of the fuel is that it will be price-predictable. Gas prices won't fluctuate because the fuel source will be stable.
Before any of this is possible, however, Air Fuel Synthesis needs to demonstrate the vital second half of the equation: the energy-efficiency of the process. For that, the company will need a bigger plant. They expect to have one up and running by 2015. Given the success of the process so far, the company is optimistic.
"The demonstrator has given us the confidence that this next level of gasoline plant will be efficient enough," said AFS marketing manager Graham Truscott.
You can view a BBC presentation about the technology in the video at top.
Related stories on MNN:
- 10 surprisingly easy sources of alternative energy
- What is methane (and why should you care)?
- 6 surprising sources of methane
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I would like to find this on youtube but have had no luck anyone know where to look if it is on youtube so I may add it to a playlist. TYIA
Water is more valuable than gas. We Hydrofrac, build cities and mess up water tables in our quest to dominate the world. Without clean, fresh water, which is rapidly running out we wont survive. Bottled water is one of the largest coporations. Why? Water is Life, not gas, there are better fuels, including organic ethanols that can be made from everyday plant matter not just corn.
Even if this process doesn't produce an energy surplus, it could result in a method of energy storage that we currently lack. Take Solar panels, which produce energy all day but none at night. How do we store this energy and use it later? Batteries are inefficient. However, if you make gasoline all day, you can burn that gasoline much later, whenever you want. The energy of the sun is thus 'stored' in the form of gasoline and used whenever you like. Even at night.
if this story is even true. I would like it to be. but I just cant believe it.
I would have an easier time if not for the fact that the author suggest here that it is possible to make more energy than is taken to make it.
It does not say that. It says "...the process cannot be viable until it is demonstrated that the energy needed as input COSTS less than what is gained as output".
The author is not talking about the amount of energy needed. He talks about the money that's required to generate it.
Remember the old adage that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true (take into consideration Lance Armstrong's claims to win on nothing but regular food).
Note that in the video, the guy doesn't answer ANY of the news lady's questions - another red-flag suspicion.
And for their next trick.
The Perpetual Motion Machine.
.
I can also create gas.
...but, is it "green?"
Oil companies won't be happy with this if it's legit. Remember what they did to the electric car?
You mean the GM Volt? Or the Mitsubishi i-MiEV? Or are you talking high-end, like the Fisker and Tesla?
Running out of CO2 is not going to happen. The CO2 may be catured from engine's exhaust pipe and stored in a tank, and given back to the plant once you buy the fuel.
How do you say "solyndra"?
we're going to run out of oxygen sorry
Lets not forget, the oil industry tells use it takes an gallon of oil to refine and make a gallon of gasoline. They tell us this so they can write-off the cost of that wasted energy at market value so they dont have to pay taxes. So if it takes as must energy to create energy in the oil industry, I see no reason this new technique will have trouble proving its value.
It probably takes more than a gallon of crude per gallon of gasoline, actually, since there are other things refined out of that crude as well.
As for the rest of your comment, if what you posted was indeed what you meant to say, the meaning escapes me. I have no idea what on earth you are talking about.
After all, the coal plant creating the electricity powering the process is over in the next county. Even better, the burning coal creates extra CO2 as feedstock to the gasoline generation process.
By comparison, corn ethanol has a 130% EROEI. Frankly, I can't see this technology being viable unless we have access to insane amounts of fusion electricity. Investors beware
This may be a very "duh" question, but I'm ignorant on the topic: does anyone know if this would still pollute our atmosphere the same way our gasoline from fossil fuels does?
Well in a sense, yes it would. But since the CO2 that it would produce has already been taken out of the atmosphere (to make the fuel with), it is technically carbon neutral (not including energy used to make the fuel).
so why not make the conversion procedure public or "opensource"? Because if it works and one company has the patent the product soon or later will be as expensive as the fuel of today...
So if we build a plant in the southern california or nevada desert, convert sunlight which we have 325 days a year and smog(365 days a year) into gasoline. the only costs would be startup of the solar plant and the conversion plant and maintence. I. E. cheap gas.
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