Scientists turn air into petrol
Fri 19 October 2012
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A small UK company, Air Fuel Synthesis, says that it has developed a revolutionary technique that can convert carbon dioxide and water vapour into petrol. The company has managed to produce five litres using a small experimental refinery and is hoping to move up to a much larger production facility within two years that will be capable of producing a ton of petrol a day.
"It sounds too good to be true, but it is true," said energy and environment head Tim Fox of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. "They are doing it and I've been up there myself and seen it. The innovation is that they have made it happen as a process. It’s a small pilot plant capturing air and extracting CO2 from it based on well known principles. It uses well-known and well-established components but what is exciting is that they have put the whole thing together and shown that it can work.”
The New Scientist described the process undertkaen by Air Fuel Synthesis in Stockton-on-Tees: "The plant comprises a CO2 capture unit in one shipping container, with a methanol reactor and miniature gasoline refining system in another. Air is blown into a sodium hydroxide mist, snagging CO2 as sodium carbonate. A condenser collects water from the same air. To make methanol – formula CH3OH – hydrogen is generated by electrolysing the water while the carbon and oxygen come from electrolysing the sodium carbonate. The methanol is then converted to gasoline."
The Independent reports that although the prototype system is designed to extract carbon dioxide from the air, this part of the process is still too inefficient to allow a commercial-scale operation. The company can and has used carbon dioxide extracted from air to make petrol, but it is also using industrial sources of carbon dioxide until it is able to improve the performance of "carbon capture".
Air Fuel Synthesis' CEO told The Independent: "The initial plan is to produce petrol that can be blended with conventional fuel, which would suit the high-performance fuels needed in motor sports. The technology is also ideal for remote communities that have abundant sources of renewable electricity, such solar energy, wind turbines or wave energy, but little in the way of storing it."
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