An English company called Air Fuel Synthesis has begun producing
gasoline (petrol) directly from air and water. Using carbon capture technology
to sequester CO2 out of the atmosphere, and electrolysis to crack water into
its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, the
company's process then combines the hydrogen and carbon dioxide to create
synthetic gasoline or other fuels.
Although the feedstock is free,
the other
costs of the process are likely too high for this to
be an immediate replacement for oil drilling and refining, at least in the
short term. And the process has only been able to produce a small amount of
fuel in its test facility, yielding just five liters (less than 1.5 gallons) in
two months. But cost and capacity are issues that can be improved as the method
is developed and scaled up.
This adds to the number of non-petroleum processes being developed
for fuel production we have seen. It seems less a question of whether these
methods will work than it is one of which ones will reach commercial scale, and
how soon that happens.
I appreciate innovative genius. I have heard many times, and tried it in construction, 'Think outside the box', hey, this is. Thanks.
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