Sucking up CO2, refrigerator-sized machine makes gasoline out of thin air(www.popsci.com)
2 pointsby smurda2 hours ago2 comments
  • throwawayffffas2 hours ago
    So what are the economics here? How much does it cost? How much power does it draw? What's the cost per gallon?

    Side question, why go through the trouble of turning the methanol into gasoline? Methanol burns and modern cars should be able to run on high grade methanol alone. They definitely can run on ethanol.

    • nik282000an hour ago
      It's a money pit.

      You get x-many joules of energy from combining each carbon atom with two oxygen atoms, then you have to capture that energy and turn it into useful work, but that is a lossy process. So even if your gaoline-from-air machine was 100% efficient you would still need to burn more carbon than it captures just to run the machine, so to make it run you need to supplement it with some other energy source.

      If you already have an additional energy source with which you can run your gasoline machine then why make the gasoline at all? Just use the energy source you have directly in an electric car.

      • throwawayffffas12 minutes ago
        It depends if it can produce gasoline at a cost similar to pulling it out of the ground and then distilling it, it might be worth it. There are over 1 billion internal combustion cars around the wolrd. They are not going anywhere anytime soon, powering them this way has incredible advantages for everyone involved even if we ignore climate change.
  • nik282000an hour ago
    Except the energy used to power the machine an manufacture the consumables is MORE than the energy you get from burning the gasoline it produces. If you have all that energy to waste initially just drive an electric car and skip this Rube Goldberg step of un-combusting carbon.