Posted on 04/27/2015 11:16:12 AM PDT by Hostage
Audi is making a new fuel for internal combustion engines that has the potential to make a big dent when it comes to climate change that's because the synthetic diesel is made from just water and carbon dioxide.
The company's pilot plant, which is operated by German startup Sunfire in Dresden, produced its first batches of the "e-diesel" this month. German Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka put a few liters of the fuel in her work car, an Audi A8, to commemorate the accomplishment.
The base fuel is referred to as "blue crude," and begins by taking electricity from renewable sources like wind, solar or hydropower and using it to produce hydrogen from water via reversible electrolysis. The hydrogen is then mixed with CO2 that has been converted into CO in two chemical processes and the resulting reactions produce a liquid made from long-chain hydrocarbons this is blue crude, which is then refined to create the end product, the synthetic e-diesel.
Audi says that the carbon dioxide used in the process is currently supplied by a biogas facility but, further adding to the green impacts of the process, some of the CO2 is captured directly from the ambient air, taking the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmag.com ...
there’s only 0.039% CO2 in the Air ,all the pants will die
‘cuz you’re not a complete half-wit?
Actually, aside from your joke about us old farts, the USA is the world’s leading producer of NG. And we have so much surplus we literally have to burn it off in flares. But DOE won’t grant an export license short of an AOG, Act of God. They say it will take NG away from the po folks, drive up prices and everybody gonna be freezin buns. This is all BS.
On the other hand, to transport the NG for export it needs to be made into LNG and LNG facilities cost a lot to construct and require land space close to ports for loading on special LNG ships. So lot of bottlenecks in the business models.
But with a powerful President who loves America, like Ted Cruz, we could have the world feeding from our hands over LNG for decades to come. Because they need it and it would also solve the Euro-Putin standoff.
“And when the fuel is burned, this CO2 turns into what, skittles?”
Sounds promising. You should patent that idea.
There's something missing from this recipe: energy. This is basically a way of turning coal into petroleum via electricity. Not a bad idea, but it will better when we replace coal-based electricity generation with LENR-based generation.
“And when the fuel is burned, this CO2 turns into what, skittles?”
They’re German. Obviously it turns into beer.
“Many of us older guys produce tons of gas daily. All renewable energy. So whats the big deal ? ;-)”
Especially after eating at Taco Bell or White Castle’s...
Oh great - first everyone outside of the car will asphyxiate from the car sucking up all the air, and then the victims lose their pants.
No, I wasn’t touting conspiracy theories but looking back at what I wrote it sure did look that way, didn’t it?
What I was referring to is the typical small time Euro Con Artist who tries to sell a tech scam to ‘investors’. What I was trying to say is if any small-time player actually had a winner, then there would be a Siemens, or BMW or Audi descending on them and buying them out. If they decided to buy it, we might not hear about it until they decided to run with it. For example, this diesel tech was probably kept hush-hush for at least a year. And it looks like Sunfire was the lucky tech company that got Audi to make the bet.
So what I wrote was just a cautionary note for Euro Tech in general. People should be aware that for every Sunfire, there are are plenty of scammers and they all sound so good to those without real good tech backgrounds.
But this is Audi and they are making the announcements.
This is based on the ratio of electrical energy entering the manufacturing plant to energy in a gallon of the fuel. If you base it on the efficiency of a diesel electric generating plant to produce the electricity it works out to about 20 percent. This means that 5 gallon of diesel fuel in an electric generating plant would produce about one gallon of this fuel.
Plants will love this...
Lol! Hang the proofreader! I am as guilty sometimes as this one.
I don’t care of my pants die, just leave what’s inside them to survive!
“we all know that CO2 isnt required by the ecosystem for anything”...
Does anyone know how much CO2 in the atmosphere is too much? How much is too little? Where such measurements should occur and why?
The whole CO2 issue appears to be based on a sort of nature loving religion that Al Gore and others are worshipping as a matter of faith rather than the “established” science they claim.
Really? You’re being sarcastic no?
Plants love CO2 and these diesel techs are robbing the poor plants of their supply!
Sounds like they be wanting some of that government grant money. Researchers are always ‘embellishing’ the numbers.
Good catch.
Bring back Horch!
Ya know, the face of that whiney woman will survive you and I.
I wander how she keeps her private life private.
My wife complains of the overabundance of natural gas eruptions at night. I never notice as I am sleeping.
And how much electricity does this new fuel take to create (electricity largely supplied by fossil fuels)? How many chemical catalysts must also be used to create this (and are any supplied by fossil fuels)?
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