Scientists Would Turn Greenhouse Gas Into Gasoline
The NYT had a great article about how Scientists have figured out a way to turn CO2 into gasoline. They would suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, put it through a chemical process, and create gasoline. This sounds like the cure for our greenhouse gas and energy problem, right? Wrong, it takes a lot of energy to do this and in my opinion the payoff doesn’t make sense.
There is, however, a major caveat that explains why no one has built a carbon-dioxide-to-gasoline factory: it requires a great deal of energy. [via NYT]
Now the article didn’t detail what the net energy loss was in this equation (meaning you put in more energy than you get out) but I assume this won’t make sense to do just like biofuels when combating greenhouse gases.
Remember, you should think of the producing energy just like trading. Your reward to risk ratio should always be greater than 1. That means if I’m using 1 Energy Unit to make more energy, the output should always be greater than 1 Energy Unit. Disclaimer: Laws of Physics apply! 
February 21st, 2008 at 3:51 pm
The only place where it might make any sense is for liquid fuels for planes. Otherwise given the inefficiency of internal combustion engines it makes more sense to use the energy required to “recycle” CO2 to directly charge batteries or create other fuels e.g. hydrogen for fuel cells, is my guess. My guess is that for planes biofuels would be better than turning CO2 into fuel. Though biofuels again make little sense for anything else.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:05 am
moom
First of all Co2 is the problem not the sollution.Second how do we eliminate it soon as possible.Though co2 has a purpose in the growth of plant life,the excess deposits of it by burning fossil feuls has put a stress on the envirenment. The answer is “New Technology” especially the electric car side looks promissing.
On youtube look up “Tesla Electric Supercar”
you will notice it’s a little pricy but there are other models coming in 2009 that might be less expensive.It’s the second fastest streetable car in the U.S.It can hit 60 mph in 4 seconds.You could say all gas guzzling cars are losers and not just in the wallet,because now you have an electric car that proves it on the race track. (there is also about 2hours of electric car info available in video with different electric car companies)
note:
There is one electric car company called
“Phoenix Motors” that has a BATTERY TECHNOLOGY that will charge the battery to full charge in 10-20 minutes not 5-6 hours.This is note worthy if you want to put in a charger in the trunk or under the phoenix’s trucks metal bed cover.
So by now your thinking what kind of charger would be good to use?(I knew you were going to say that)o.k. good question
There are new technologies coming out with perpetual motion type generators,where you get 200% possotive output. It’s all based on magnets placed in certain possitions to where they reduce elctric field ressistance by 90% therefore you get 200% percent possitive output.But my favorate, though in it’s R&D stage is the “Electric Vihicle Surge Technology” it’s a little bigger then a bread basket,but you can bolt it down in the bed,trunk,sidewall of any electric car and with it conected to the battery source you can use it as a charger to charge the car at will and never have to stop the car to charge it.In all you would wind up with the first perpetual motion electric vihicle. Say goodbye to the gas station, because you will never have to go to one except to fill your tires with air. If you look at youtube and type in “Electric Vehicle Surge Technology No Batteries No Gas” you will see what i mean.
P.S. Don’t let the oil companies find out that you know this because they will make a big stink about it probably a “Co2 Stink”.Ha,Ha, They will do anything to discourage this grassroots movement to continue america’s gas guzzling ways.
SAD BUT TRUE!
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 am
@dc: where does the electricity come from that the car uses? How is *it* produced? The electric car sounds good because it *does* take out one portion of the CO2.
@moom: I think dc has a point there with the CO2 being the initial problem. I prefer to plant trees.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Hi tom
Phoenix motors uses the ALTAIRNANO BATTERY to power the vihicle with about 130 mile range per charge.It’s a nano product that eliminated the carbon rod problems which have eliminated over heating and exploding when over charging.So it has a completely different way of storing, charging, and discharging and its done completely on a molecular level.
As far as charging it has to be able to withstand far greater electric flow from the charging unit in order to be able to charge back to full capacity in 10-20 minutes as it claims.Therefore it is the ideal battery for an onboard charging unit mounted somewhere in the trunk or bed of the truck. This on board charging unit’s only purpose
is to replenish, in as large quantities as possible, the kilowatts used by driving.the vihicle.The average car alternator charges at greater levels then the normal batteries are capable to withstand so they run the current thru a reducer so your battery won’t explode.With the Altairnano battery in oder to make the claim of 10-20 minute charge that would not be a problem any longer.Other claims are 15,000 full charge cycles which means 15,000 x 130 miles capacity equals 1,950,000 mile life span with still 80% recharge capacity left.
As far as the charging unit it has to put out a greater charge then it uses to run itself otherwise it would serve no purpose. There are 200% output chargers in R&D that put out twice the current then they use to run themselves.On youtube take a look at” Free Energy:The Race To Zero”(1thru11) you”ll get the big picture.
On a different note there is a car coming out in 2010 called chevy VOLT it’s a electric/hybrid.In other words it runs on only electric for 40 mile range then it has a little tiny gasoline/alternative feul run charger that maintanes the battery so that it continues to function as an electric car.It has 12.3 gal. tank,and with the charger engaged it gets 50mpg so it’s range is roughly 640 miles.
Now lets say you change the battery to the Altairnano battery.First you get 130 mile range before you engage the alternative feul charger,and if you could charge the battery back up to full capacity in 15 minutes with it’s tiny charger,and if it stays 50mpg.
IT WOULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS
car travelling 50mph for 2 hours = 100 miles used of electric charge
charger engaging for 15 minutes to recharge battery to full capacity
multiply by 4
equals 450 mpg
multiply by 12 gal.tank capacity
equals roughly 5400 mile range per fill up
yearly mile driving average is 12,000 miles per year per car
so most drivers might fill up no more then 2-3 times a year
NOW WE ARE REALLY REDUCING CO2 FROM THE ENVIRNMENT!
February 24th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
dc: That sounds like a promising battery and it does take out one part of the CO2 equation, what’s generated from a typical combustion engine. There still will be CO2 generated from the source electricity production to charge the battery.