Making Gasoline from Carbon Dioxide

[cemartin]

A researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratories recently developed a method of taking CO2 and converting it into gasoline. It looks energy intensive, but economically feasible at about $4.60 per gallon gas. How long will it be until that's a reality? Read for yourself. Let me know your thoughts on the subject.
Curtis

http://www.lanl.gov/news/newsbulletin/pdf/Green_Freedom_Overview.pdf

[Dave Frank]

That seems promising as an alternative energy supply, but it would does little to change pollution on the exhaust side.

Could be a good part of the solution, but we need to do better.

[caspermike]

hey sounds like a good idea. demand is whats upping the prices these days and 4.60 is about what some of the east coast states are sitting at.

[cemartin]

It sounds like a good bet to me. After all, we could eliminate our dependence on foreing oil and at the same time we could recycle our carbon emmissions. Our national security and economic vitality are currently dependent on oil production. Although it would take a lot of energy to develop gasoline/ diesel/ propane/ methane/ etc., it could easily be developed from nuclear power.

[Roy]

Is that a nuclear reactor I saw in their process? It's not hard to make fuel when you've got one of those. Why not just call it good after they've split the water into hydrogen and oxygen?

It's what to do with the waste products that's the tricky part...

[cemartin]

I'm very interested in hydrogen fuel cell technology as well. It burns clean producing water. However, there are many great challenges that hydrogen must overcome to be even somewhat viable. The biggest challenge is that even a small car (made extremely light) can only travel about 300 miles on a tank of hydrogen. In order to store enough hydrogen to even have this range capability, the pressure must be approximately 10,000 psi to keep the tank size feasible. 10,000 psi is a lot of pressure to have underneath you in an accident. Another obvious problem (it can be solved) is to establish the infastructure to fuel hydrogen cars. I personally believe that the government should mandate the sale of alternative fuels at gas stations (if the product is feasible), but were not there yet.

Does anyone know of any advancements in the hydrogen fuel cell development?

[Snowhere]

There is a coal fired power plant in Arizona that is capturing their CO2 emissions and sending it to a greenhouse. In the greenhouse, they are growing algae. The algae is then turned into fuel for the plant vehicles. It is not a huge amount of fuel, but as a vehicle for removing CO2 emissions from the atmosphere, I think it is a win-win situation. Keep the CO2 from escaping, and get some bio-fuel with it.

[ChrisL]

This is bogus. There is no way that the energy required to reduce the carbon back into a hydrocarbon such as heptane is less than the amount of energy you get from oxidizing (burning) it to CO2. Where did you read this? Please don't say the internet...

[ChrisL]

Alight, methanol from co2 is more legit, but it still isn't gasoline. Methanol does not burn as hot as gasoline and therefore not as good. Secondly this is only a theory and hasn't been done. Hence "Concept".

[cemartin]

Why would you be so quick to dismiss an idea? I only put the idea out there to see what everyone thinks. I'm not saying this is the only way to go, it's just an idea that one of the most reputable labs in the world is working on. Give me some of your ideas.