Germany cleantech company Sunfire GmbH may have found a future replacement for fossil fuels, having developed a rig that can transform water into a synthetic fuel source. (Photo : Creative Commons)
Posted on 11/19/2014 7:01:19 PM PST by ckilmer
By John Nassivera | Nov 19, 2014 01:48 PM EST
Germany cleantech company Sunfire GmbH may have found a future replacement for fossil fuels, having developed a rig that can transform water into a synthetic fuel source.
The rig accomplishes this through "Power-to-liquid" technology, which converts water and carbon dioxide (CO2) into liquid hydrocarbons to be used as synthetic petroleum, kerosene and diesel, according to CNET.
Solid oxide electrolyser cells (SOECs) play a role in the process, converting energy supplied by wind, solar and other renewable resources into steam. Hydrogen is produced by removing oxygen from the steam, and is then used to produce CO2 into carbon monoxide (CO). The rig then synthesizes the resultant H2 and CO into high-purity fuel.
Sunfire had to make use of the Fischer-Tropsch process, a technique for producing liquid hydrocarbons developed in 1925, in order to get the results it needed, Yahoo! News reported.
The rig is able to recycle 3.2 tonnes of CO2 each day and produces one barrel of fuel each day. The machine currently serves for demonstration and feasibility uses.
Sunfire, which had to spend "seven figures" to design and build the rig, says the process is able to achieve an efficiency rate of 70 percent by using excess heat to create more steam, CNET reported.
Christian von Olshausen, CTO of Sunfire, said the company now has to focus on "regulatory factors falling into place in a way which gives investors a sufficient level of planning reliability."
"Once that has occurred it will be possible to commence the step-by-step substitution of fossil fuels," von Olshausen added. "If we want to achieve fuel economy in the long term, we need to get started today.
Even common nuclear reactors would be great for this. They work more efficiently at a constant output rather than turning them down at night when power demands are lower. If you could use your night time oversupply to produce gasoline this would be great news.
There were reports that the US Navy was working on this two years ago as a means of self fueling ships at sea by using seawater and carbon dioxide. There have been no further reports in the intervening two years that I know of. The problem then likely was that they didn’t have a fuel source to drive the process.
http://www.gizmag.com/jet-fuel-seawater/24287/
Except nobody mentioned that the nuclear powered aircraft carriers would generate the sort of power to convert salt water and CO2 to jet fuel. It would be expensive but cheaper than transporting jet fuel over the ocean.
There is a car that runs on water...not very successful yet.
ive heard that it keeps sinking...
NO I don’t think that is the problem...
Plus you’re only going to get simple hydrocarbons like Alan’s from this process. You can make jet fuel, sure. But you won’t make any lubricants, fertilizers or pharmaceuticals from the products.
You’ll still have to drill.
And they also have Mr.Cold Fusion
Interesting idea.
Teddy Kennedy tried it 4 years later.
Wouldn’t one of the byproducts of combustion be water?
How soon until they produce 100 million barrels a day?
How soon until they produce 100 million barrels a day?
..................
Not soon — but this could be a good way to make jet fuel for aircraft carriers.
CNET calls this a “miracle” technology.
Why is this a “miracle”? Does it violate any of the known laws of the universe? Does it violate any of the laws of thermodynamics? If not, it’s hardly a miracle.
BTW, why does only “special” electricity generated from solar or wind work? Is that part of the miracle? That “regular” electricity generated by hydro-power, nuclear power, or burning fossil fuels won’t work, but wind and solar electricity will?
I’m pretty sure you’re right. If I recall, The byproduct of burning hydrogen is H2O. So that would mean they would create a perpetual motion machine by making energy from water, which obviously is not possible.
I believe the show was called "NAZI Wonder Weapons of 1996." It was in keeping with that theory always pushed on the History Channel that all Der Fuehrer needed was more time!
“CNET calls this a “miracle” technology.”
CNET (and even some chemists and politicians) dont realize that just because you can do a chemical reaction to produce a desired compound doesnt mean it is economically feasible.
And when you burn hydrogen, the byproduct is water.
“Christian von Olshausen, CTO of Sunfire, said the company now has to focus on “regulatory factors falling into place in a way which gives investors a sufficient level of planning reliability.””
Subsidies.
There you go.
“*why does it smell like BS?*”
Probably because alchemy would be required for this to happen.
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