Making Liquid Fuels From Sun and Air

GregLaden writes: There is promising research on converting atmospheric CO2 and water, using sunlight as a source of energy, into burnable liquid fuels. This is not a carbon capture technique because the CO2 ultimately returns to the atmosphere after burning the fuel, but it could allow the production of enough liquid fuel to allow the rest of the motorized economy to switch to mainly electric. There are key uses for liquid fuels, even if most 'engines' become electric motors. The science of how this works is fairly interesting, and a recent writeup in Science gives some of the details.

Comments

It isn't a carbon capture technique?

[NotSoHeavyD3]

This is not a carbon capture technique

Wait, you can't use it to extract "Fuel" and then pump it back into the ground where the oil used to be?

This is what I look forward most in hydrogen econ

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

The hydrogen economy probably won't be on us for at least about 5 years if it paces itself at a break neck pace. The dream of having a farm with solar panels, converting water to hydrogen to store in tanks in the ground is a cool dream. You can then use that hydrogen to power your car or heat your home. The key is that the tanks haven't hit an economy of scale yet since the commercial hydrogen car just came out by Toyota this year. In the short run Hydrogen is expensive as all get out, but in the long run it can be cheaper than batteries. A battery array likely won't come down in price nearly as much as a pressurized tank will.

Get a farm, a solar array, some underground tanks, and you have unlimited fuel for your car and can heat your home in the winter for free. Gas stations will be something any Joe can make himself by installing a pump in his own personal system. The creation of the hydrogen gas is done on site with electricity and water.

That said, it will be a little while before we can all embrace it because economy of scale need to hit things like pressurized tanks and such. I'm interested in hearing about these other gases being made through solar energy though. I've heard other gases being used at powerplants and such, but I forget which ones.

Re:This is what I look forward most in hydrogen ec

[swb]

I think most sane electrolysis projects target methane as the ultimate product because it can be injected into the natural gas distribution network and is much easier to handle than bulk hydrogen.

Just stick with electricity. It's what you start with, it's what you want to end with... it's stupid to convert forms. (Okay, technically, storing in a battery is conversion to chemical energy, but it's extremely efficient in doing so - at least with modern forms like li-ion).

The thing is, if you're using solar and have no grid use for the generated power at the time of generation, does it really matter how efficient your conversion is? You're using energy that would otherwise go unused. It's free input energy and the output (if you target methane) is a form of storable and transportable energy for which we already have a storage and transportation infrastructure.