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#151 2024-04-05 13:08:47
- SpaceNut
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Re: Synthetic or Natural Fuel Produced using Solar Power
Consider that I pay 0,22 a kwhr that's not bad if we got the same distance from battery stored electrical.
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#152 2024-05-09 17:30:41
- SpaceNut
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Re: Synthetic or Natural Fuel Produced using Solar Power
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#153 2024-05-09 17:44:59
- tahanson43206
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Re: Synthetic or Natural Fuel Produced using Solar Power
For SpaceNut re #152
Thank you for finding and posting the report about a trial commercialization scale test in South Korea to make formic acid from CO2 captured from the air.
For all ... ? can formic acid feed into a fuel manufacturing process? Apparently (per the article) formic acid is a commercially useful chemical.
(th)
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#154 2024-05-19 19:14:40
- SpaceNut
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Re: Synthetic or Natural Fuel Produced using Solar Power
Here is another article on Banyu's method, on the other hand, purports to be low-energy and low-cost. Startup develops process powered by sunlight and seawater to remove CO2 from air: '[It] can actually be energy positive'
Developing carbon-capture batteries to store renewable energy, help climate
One of these new battery types maintained its capacity for 600 hours of use and could store up to 10 hours of electricity.
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#155 2024-05-20 11:00:09
- SpaceNut
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Re: Synthetic or Natural Fuel Produced using Solar Power
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#156 2026-01-25 15:35:26
- SpaceNut
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Re: Synthetic or Natural Fuel Produced using Solar Power
Its been a while but here is New York startup builds fridge-sized machine that can turn air into gasoline
You can't get something for nothing, and if it seems too good to be true, it usually is. However, the Aircela machine seems to be an exception to these rules, with its ability to create gasoline using little more than electricity and the air that we breathe. It sounds like the science fiction of a "Star Trek" replicator, but the process is rooted in science facts. While it's not quite the free energy it sounds like at first, the technology in its current state has some practical, small-scale applications, which are exactly what Aircela is targeting.
The Aircela machine works through a three-step process. It captures carbon dioxide directly from the air. While this process doesn't nearly offset how much carbon cars spew into the air, it is a sound process that works, though usually on a much larger scale than Aircela's. The machine also traps water vapor, and uses electrolysis to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen instead of destroying your car's cooling system. The oxygen is released, leaving hydrogen and carbon dioxide, the building blocks of hydrocarbons.
This mixture then undergoes a process known as direct hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol, as documented in scientific papers. Methanol is a useful, though dangerous, racing fuel, but the engine under your hood won't run on it, so it must be converted to gasoline. ExxonMobil has been studying the process of doing exactly that since at least the 1970s. It's another well-established process, and the final step the Aircela machine performs before dispensing it through a built-in ordinary gas pump. So while creating gasoline out of thin air sounds like something only a wizard alchemist in Dungeons & Dragons can do, each step of this process is grounded in science, and combining the steps in this manner means it can, and does, really work.
Aircela does not, however, promise free gasoline for all. There are some limitations to this process. A machine the size of Aircela's produces just one gallon of gas per day. That's not going to keep your nine-MPG Bugatti Chiron Super Sport going for very long, or even your 43-MPG Honda CRX HF. The machine can store up to 17 gallons, according to Popular Science, so if you don't drive very much, you can fill up your tank, eventually. It could probably keep my little Kawasaki Z125 going for quite a while, though.
While the Aircela website does not list a price for the machine, The Autopian reports it's targeting a price between $15,000 and $20,000, with hopes of dropping the price once mass production begins. While certainly less expensive than a traditional gas station, it's still a bit of an investment to begin producing your own fuel. If you live or work out in the middle of nowhere, however, it could be close to or less than the cost of bringing gas to you, or driving all your vehicles into a distant town to fill up. You're also not limited to buying just one machine, as the system is designed to scale up to produce as much fuel as you need.
The main reason why this process isn't "something for nothing" is that it takes twice as much electrical energy to produce energy in the form of gasoline. As Aircela told The Autopian:
Aircelais targeting >50% end to end power efficiency. Since there is about 37kWh of energy in a gallon of gasoline we will require about 75kWh to make it. When we power our machines with standalone, off-grid, photovoltaic panels this will correspond to less than $1.50/gallon in energy cost.
Sustainable energy is the key to making the Aircela machine practical and cost-effective. Running it on the grid from coal or natural gas power plants defeats the purpose of removing carbon from the air, and the electricity will cost more, too. However, investing in both the machines and the solar panels to power them means that the product will cost no more than that initial investment. This could work well in remote desert areas, with plenty of sun and cheap land to set up an extensive solar array.
Even though the entire process is firmly rooted in reality, making gasoline from electricity and air still sounds like science fiction. As Arthur C. Clarke wrote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." So if you want to dress up as a wizard while making your own fuel, go right ahead.
A Company Wants To Sell You A Small Machine To Make Gasoline Out Of Air
Direct hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol: Systematic generation of multi-stage designs
https://www.jalopnik.com/this-bizarre-v … 1752/]This Bizarre Video Explains Why People Tend To Avoid Using Methanol Fuel
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#157 2026-01-25 17:10:00
- SpaceNut
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Re: Synthetic or Natural Fuel Produced using Solar Power
For SpaceNut re post about gasoline from air: https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 09#p237609
Bingo!
That is ** impressive ** ... members of this forum have written extensively about the combination of technologies to make this happen.
The producer of the system you showed us has achieved at an astonishing level, all (apparently) in the Capitalist System (although there may be some contributions from tax payers since this would have been a business investment, research costs of which are deductible).
The team that achieved that result had outstanding leadership.
The individual members of the team had to have performed at a very high level indeed.
This company is a candidate for a book on how the Capitalist System can work.
Someone had vision, but a ** lot ** of people have vision. It was the many steps from vision to product that distinguish this group from the visionaries.
(th)
We talked about such systems but as you know when you have no money you do not invest in trial and error. That's why we have engineering people to do those things.
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