[Peakoil] Turning fresh air into petrol

[Jenny Goldie]

I suppose it is a variation of artificial photosynthesis that Professor 
Thomas Faunce is pushing strongly.

Jenny


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith" <myrmecia at gmail.com>
To: "'Peakoil Discussion'" <peakoil at act-peakoil.org>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2012 8:43 PM
Subject: [Peakoil] Turning fresh air into petrol


> Sounds like a terrible EROI at this stage, but the advantages of petrol 
> over other energy sources mean that crude EROI equations are not valid.
> -----------------------------
> Keith Thomas
> myrmecia at gmail.com
> 074 2929 4146
> ------------------------------
> Exclusive: The scientists who turned fresh air into petrol
> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exclusive-the-scientists-who-turned-fresh-air-into-petrol-8217382.html#
> Is scientific breakthrough a milestone on the road to clean energy?
>
>
> Steve Connor
>
> Friday, 19 October 2012
> A small British company has produced the first "petrol from air" using a 
> revolutionary technology that promises to solve the energy crisis as well 
> as helping to curb global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the 
> atmosphere.
>
>
> Air Fuel Synthesis in Stockton-on-Tees has produced five litres of petrol 
> since August when it switched on a small refinery that manufactures 
> gasoline from carbon dioxide and water vapour.
>
> The company hopes that within two years it will build a larger, 
> commercial-scale plant capable of producing a ton of petrol a day. It also 
> plans to produce green aviation fuel to make airline travel more 
> carbon-neutral.
>
> Tim Fox, head of energy and the environment at the Institution of 
> Mechanical Engineers in London, said: "It sounds too good to be true, but 
> it is true. They are doing it and I've been up there myself and seen it. 
> The innovation is that they have made it happen as a process. It's a small 
> pilot plant capturing air and extracting CO2 from it based on well known 
> principles. It uses well-known and well-established components but what is 
> exciting is that they have put the whole thing together and shown that it 
> can work."
>
> Although the process is still in the early developmental stages and needs 
> to take electricity from the national grid to work, the company believes 
> it will eventually be possible to use power from renewable sources such as 
> wind farms or tidal barrages.
>
> "We've taken carbon dioxide from air and hydrogen from water and turned 
> these elements into petrol," said Peter Harrison, the company's chief 
> executive, who revealed the breakthrough at a conference at the 
> Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London.
>
> "There's nobody else doing it in this country or indeed overseas as far as 
> we know. It looks and smells like petrol but it's a much cleaner and 
> clearer product than petrol derived from fossil oil," Mr Harrison told The 
> Independent.
>
> "We don't have any of the additives and nasty bits found in conventional 
> petrol, and yet our fuel can be used in existing engines," he said.
>
> "It means that people could go on to a garage forecourt and put our 
> product into their car without having to install batteries or adapt the 
> vehicle for fuel cells or having hydrogen tanks fitted. It means that the 
> existing infrastructure for transport can be used," Mr Harrison said.
>
> Being able to capture carbon dioxide from the air, and effectively remove 
> the principal industrial greenhouse gas resulting from the burning of 
> fossil fuels such as oil and coal, has been the holy grail of the emerging 
> green economy.
>
> Using the extracted carbon dioxide to make petrol that can be stored, 
> transported and used as fuel for existing engines takes the idea one step 
> further. It could transform the environmental and economic landscape of 
> Britain, Mr Harrison explained.
>
> "We are converting renewable electricity into a more versatile, useable 
> and storable form of energy, namely liquid transport fuels. We think that 
> by the end of 2014, provided we can get the funding going, we can be 
> producing petrol using renewable energy and doing it on a commercial 
> basis," he said.
>
> "We ought to be aiming for a refinery-scale operation within the next 15 
> years. The issue is making sure the UK is in a good place to be able to 
> set up and establish all the manufacturing processes that this technology 
> requires. You have the potential to change the economics of a country if 
> you can make your own fuel," he said.
>
> The initial plan is to produce petrol that can be blended with 
> conventional fuel, which would suit the high-performance fuels needed in 
> motor sports. The technology is also ideal for remote communities that 
> have abundant sources of renewable electricity, such solar energy, wind 
> turbines or wave energy, but little in the way of storing it, Mr Harrison 
> said.
>
> "We're talking to a number of island communities around the world and 
> other niche markets to help solve their energy problems.
>
> "You're in a market place where the only way is up for the price of fossil 
> oil and at some point there will be a crossover where our fuel becomes 
> cheaper," he said.
>
> Although the prototype system is designed to extract carbon dioxide from 
> the air, this part of the process is still too inefficient to allow a 
> commercial-scale operation.
>
> The company can and has used carbon dioxide extracted from air to make 
> petrol, but it is also using industrial sources of carbon dioxide until it 
> is able to improve the performance of "carbon capture".
>
> Other companies are working on ways of improving the technology of carbon 
> capture, which is considered far too costly to be commercially viable as 
> it costs up to £400 for capturing one ton of carbon dioxide.
>
> However, Professor Klaus Lackner of Columbia University in New York said 
> that the high costs of any new technology always fall dramatically.
>
> "I bought my first CD in the 1980s and it cost $20 but now you can make 
> one for less than 10 cents. The cost of a light bulb has fallen 7,000-fold 
> during the past century," Professor Lackner said.
>
>
>
>
>
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