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British Engineers Produce Amazing 'Petrol From Air' Technology
Telegraph(UK) ^ | October 18, 2012 | Andrew Hough

Posted on 10/18/2012 8:36:34 PM PDT by Steelfish

British Engineers Produce Amazing 'Petrol From Air' Technology Revolutionary new technology that produces “petrol from air” is being produced by a British firm, it emerged tonight.

Andrew Hough 18 Oct 2012 A small company in the north of England has developed the “air capture” technology to create synthetic petrol using only air and electricity.

Experts tonight hailed the astonishing breakthrough as a potential “game-changer” in the battle against climate change and a saviour for the world’s energy crisis.

The technology, presented to a London engineering conference this week, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The “petrol from air” technology involves taking sodium hydroxide and mixing it with carbon dioxide before "electrolysing" the sodium carbonate that it produces to form pure carbon dioxide. Hydrogen is then produced by electrolysing water vapour captured with a dehumidifier.

The company, Air Fuel Syndication, then uses the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methanol which in turn is passed through a gasoline fuel reactor, creating petrol.

Company officials say they had produced five litres of petrol in less than three months from a small refinery in Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside. The fuel that is produced can be used in any regular petrol tank and, if renewable energy is used to provide the electricity it could become “completely carbon neutral”.

The £1.1m project, in development for the past two years, is being funded by a group of unnamed philanthropists who believe the technology could prove to be a lucrative way of creating renewable energy.

While the technology has the backing of Britain’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers, it has yet to capture the interest of major oil companies.

But company executives hope to build a large plant, which could produce more than a tonne of petrol every day, within two years and a refinery size operation within the...

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: carbondioxide; energy; hydrogen; methanol; petrol
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To: OneWingedShark

Well, He passed that law so I suppose He can amend it.


41 posted on 10/18/2012 10:05:48 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
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To: Bubba_Leroy
I learned how to create clean burning pure hydrogen out of water back in my high school chemistry class 40 years ago.

Yep, me too. Too bad it's nearly impossible to store.

42 posted on 10/18/2012 10:08:45 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
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To: Syntyr

I know you’re being facetious, but *IF* this process is reasonably efficient then it is a far more effective means of storing energy. Consider the fact that the bulky, heavy, state-of-the-art battery in the Chevy Volt only holds the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline. Ultimately all fossil fuels are the storage medium for solar & geothermal energy from prehistoric times.


43 posted on 10/18/2012 10:14:10 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
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To: bigtoona

“It will probably take more energy input than what you get out of it.”

Ya think? :)


44 posted on 10/18/2012 10:18:17 PM PDT by ImaGraftedBranch (...By reading this, you've collapsed my wave function. Thanks.)
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To: Steelfish

“While the technology has the backing of Britain’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers, it has yet to capture the interest of major oil companies”.

Possibly because they need more than a few tons of petrol.


45 posted on 10/18/2012 10:32:36 PM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: Steelfish
British Engineers Produce Amazing 'Petrol From Air'

Yeh -- as long as the air is over a dairy farm or a Mexican burrito wagon at lunchtime.

46 posted on 10/18/2012 10:41:17 PM PDT by Uncle Chip
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To: Steelfish

Produced 6 liters of petrol in 3 months? And I apparently missed the part where they mentioned how many thousand pounds it cost per liter to produce! Right up there with Solyndra, et al!


47 posted on 10/18/2012 11:09:47 PM PDT by Tucker39
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To: dsrtsage

not to mention that removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere would be harmful to plants and crops ... doh!


48 posted on 10/19/2012 12:26:16 AM PDT by willyd (Don't shoot, we're Republicans!)
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To: Moonman62
I vote that this is a scam.

Sure it’s a scam

It’s a scam to get tax dollars to develop a completely useless process.

49 posted on 10/19/2012 12:44:25 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: gunnut; willyd
won’t we potentially be reducing plant growth by reducing CO2 levels?

No, since burning the fuel will release the CO2 back into the air.

50 posted on 10/19/2012 2:43:55 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: Paradox
Pretty clear to me that the vast majority of posters here are missing the point.

Their comments suggest that they failed all their science classes in high school, but were "socially promoted" anyway ... and that they have exactly zero real world exposure to real science and engineering. They probably think that "The Big Bang Theory" accurately depicts science and engineering students.

51 posted on 10/19/2012 2:56:35 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: Steelfish
Company officials say they had produced five litres of petrol in less than three months

WOW! That could power my nephew's moped for a whole....week.

52 posted on 10/19/2012 3:18:04 AM PDT by montag813
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To: Tony in Hawaii

A red XKE Jag is a very practical car. It attracts Blondes.


53 posted on 10/19/2012 3:24:55 AM PDT by Rifleman
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To: Crazieman

>>All these stupid “breakthroughs” and “holy grails” are bunk every time we find out you have to feed more energy in than you get out.

Well of course you do. The First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics see to that. It is a given.

One of our biggest problems with energy policy is that we seem to have politicians who think otherwise running it.


54 posted on 10/19/2012 3:35:44 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est.)
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To: Steelfish

How long before global warming fanatics start blaming this technology for causing global cooling because the atmosphere is being depleted of carbon dioxide.


55 posted on 10/19/2012 3:35:48 AM PDT by monocle
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To: Squawk 8888
" there is no way around the First Law of Thermodynamics"

Actually, if we re-elect Obama, he plans to repeal this law during his second term. It's far too restrictive on his energy plans for renewables. You might also expect to see him set pi to an even 3.0. It's part of an affirmative action plan to simplify math so that more will get passing grades.

56 posted on 10/19/2012 9:55:09 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: Squawk 8888
Too bad it's nearly impossible to store.

Hydrogen is actually very easy to store. Just combine it with oxygen and store it as dihydrogen monoxide.

Of course, you have to be really careful when handling dihydrogen monixide because it is really dangerous stuff.

57 posted on 10/20/2012 12:18:34 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation Continues)
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