Breakthrough solar cell captures carbon dioxide and sunlight, produces burnable fuel

phys.org ^ | July 28, 2016 | Provided by: University of Illinois at Chicago

[JD_UTDallas]

This process will boil down to economics not technical feasibility, there is no question that syngas can and does every day by the billions of cubic meters of gas get turned into diesel, jet fuel and industrial lubricants in refineries around the world. like I said you can go to Wal-Mart and buy syngas based motor oil right now today its $9 a quart. This process will have to compete with fluidic coal bed gasification, steam methane reforming, and biomass gasification as raw sources of syngas. It all matters how cheaply this process can make a cubic meter of syngas vs those other sources which in a large portion of the world have large carbon taxes levied on them. If these scientists can scale up and produce syngad at economically competitive prices they can enter a multibillion dollar market for syngas and the associated petrochemical complex. I should probably point out that I hold 3 science degrees two at the graduate level or above and work in the petroleum industry so I deal with this kind of economics every day. I wish these guys much success anything that increases access to affordable energy without environmental impacts worse than coal should be supported post haste.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

So, in other words, we now have a man-made leaf.

[Red Badger]

Man Made Leaf.............

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

And you can plant a tree that will produce many more items with higher end value with much less capital.

I remain unimpressed no matter how many great walls of text you post to me.

[Chaguito]

At $200/kg, it’s still a lot higher than mined uranium, so the word “economically” is relative. UT published an article saying 4-10 times the cost of mined uranium. But, as they pointed out, it sets an upper limit to the cost of uranium.

In any case, I’m convinced that this is something to keep an eye on.