Sandia’s Sunshine to Petrol Project Seeks Fuel from Thin Air
January 3rd, 2008I’d love to know the funding allocation for this project, in terms of the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan per second.
Now, you might be asking: Why not just put the money and effort into developing some kind of solar electric system.
Two reasons:
1) They want to extend the profits that can be extracted from what remains of oil and natural gas.
2) As far as I can tell, there is no viable propulsion system on the horizon for aircraft outside of liquid fuels. Affordable, highway capable electric vehicles from China are about to start flooding the market (here and here). The Aptera pure EV and extended range hybrid vehicles will ship in about a year. Phoenix Motorcars is taking fleet orders for their pure EV SUV now… (There are lots of other EV projects in the pipeline, too many to mention; and no, I didn’t forget that Tesla thing, which doesn’t even count, in my opinion, because of the six figure price, and the faulty transmission. HAHA)
Having said all of that: You won’t see a plug-in Boeing 747 anytime soon. For this reason, we’re going to see increasing amounts of jet fuel derived from a number of sources (shale, algae, and, that’s right, out of “thin air” as the article describes below.)
Indeed, without endless supplies of diesel/Jet A the U.S. military would grind to a halt. Note DARPA’s interest in this.
Nope, definitely no hurry to roll this stuff out. Lots of oil to be sold at $100 (or more) per barrel.
Bend over, grab ankles. The oil companies aren’t done with us yet. Not even close.
Via: sandia.gov:
Using concentrated solar energy to reverse combustion, a research team from Sandia National Laboratories is building a prototype device intended to chemically “reenergize” carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using concentrated solar power. The carbon monoxide could then be used to make hydrogen or serve as a building block to synthesize a liquid combustible fuel, such as methanol or even gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
The prototype device, called the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5, for short), will break a carbon-oxygen bond in the carbon dioxide to form carbon monoxide and oxygen in two distinct steps. It is a major piece of an approach to converting carbon dioxide into fuel from sunlight.
The Sandia research team calls this approach “Sunshine to Petrol” (S2P). “Liquid Solar Fuel” is the end product — the methanol, gasoline, or other liquid fuel made from water and the carbon monoxide produced using solar energy.
Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratory.
CR5 inventor Rich Diver says the original idea for the device was to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen could then fuel a potential hydrogen economy.
The Sandia researchers came up with the idea to use the CR5 to break down carbon dioxide, just as it would water. Over the past year they have shown proof of concept and are completing a prototype device that will use concentrated solar energy to reenergize carbon dioxide or water, the products of combustion. This will form carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and oxygen, which ultimately could be used to synthesize liquid fuels in an integrated S2P system.
Coresearchers on the project are Jim E. Miller and Nathan Siegel. Project champion is Ellen B. Stechel, manager of Sandia’s Fuels and Energy Transitions Department.
Stechel says that researchers have known for a long time that theoretically it might be possible to recycle carbon dioxide, but many thought it could not be made practical, either technically or economically.
“Hence, it has not been pursued with much vigor,” she says. “Not only did we think it was possible, the team has developed a prototype that they fully anticipate will successfully break down carbon dioxide in a clever and viable two-step process.”
Stechel notes that one driver for the invention is the need to reduce greenhouse gases.
“This invention, though probably a good 15 to 20 years away from being on the market, holds a real promise of being able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while preserving options to keep using fuels we know and love,” she says. “Recycling carbon dioxide into fuels provides an attractive alternative to burying it.”
Providing funding for Sunshine to Petrol is Sandia’s internal Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program. The research has also attracted interest and some funding from DoD/DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
“What’s exciting about this invention is that it will result in fossil fuels being used at least twice, meaning less carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere and a reduction of the rate that fossil fuels are pulled out of the ground,” Diver says.
As an example, he says, coal would be burned at a clean coal power plant. The carbon dioxide from the burning of the coal would be captured and reduced to carbon monoxide in the CR5. The carbon monoxide would then be the starting point of making gasoline, jet fuel, methanol, or almost any type of liquid fuel.
The prospect of a liquid fuel is significant because it fits in with the current gasoline and oil infrastructure. After the synthesized fuel is made from the carbon monoxide, it could be transported through a pipeline or put in a truck and hauled to a gas station, just like gasoline refined from petroleum is now. Plus it would work in ordinary gasoline and diesel engine vehicles.
Miller says that while the first step would be to capture the carbon dioxide from sources where it is concentrated — e.g., power plants, smokestacks, and breweries — the ultimate goal would be to snatch it out of the air. A S2P system that includes atmospheric carbon dioxide capture could produce carbon-neutral liquid fuels.
