The Middle East and their oil reserves could become irrelevant.
Scientists from the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have successfully flown a radio-controlled airplane that was running purely on fuel derived from sea water.
The fuel was obtained using NRL's gas-to-liquid technology. This involved running sea water through the group's E-CEM (electrolytic cation exchange module) Carbon Capture Skid, which removed carbon dioxide from the water at 92 percent efficiency while simultaneously producing hydrogen as part of the process. Using a metal catalyst in a separate reactor system, the CO2 and hydrogen gases were then converted into a liquid hydrocarbon fuel.
In a proof-of-concept test performed last September at Blossom Point, Maryland, that fuel was used to power an RC model P-51 Mustang's unmodified two-stroke engine. It marked the first time that the fuel had been used in a conventional combustion engine, and was made public this Monday.
The researchers are now working on upscaling the system to a commercial scale. NRL notes that apart from its use in fuel production, the CO2 could also have applications in the fields of horticulture or aquaculture.
This video gives more details on the process.
3 comments:
Takes a LOT of heat and steam to make that happen.
At best it makes hydrocarbon like fuel that returns enough energy to break even.
At best.
in a pinch it would keep ships mobile, but not a real solution.
No drilling involved though
The Law of Diminishing Returns makes it a sketchy energy investment for the amount of return with conventional energy sources but if you used a nuke reactor set up then the amount of fuel you could make is virtually limitless.
Yea, I also want to know where the energy comes from. The end product of burning hydrocarbons is pretty much water and carbon dioxide, so making water and carbon dioxide into fuel takes the energy that you extract by burning it.
So this thing about ships making their own fuel? Maybe if they have a nuclear reactor somewhere, in which case... why bother.
But it would be a good way of putting nuclear power in your fuel tank. If nuclear power were more popular, that is.
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