In the same (as the Rolls Cullinan) June issue of Car magazine there was an interesting article regarding the progress of attempts to make fuel from air. This is done through removing the CO2 from the atmosphere in a process called Direct Air Capture. The general points are,

1 Banks of fans, known as contactors, draw air in from the atmosphere.

2 This is then passed over sheets of corrugated plastic coated in potassium hydroxide to seperate out the CO2.

3 In a seperate process, hydrogen is generated by electrolysing water using green energy such as solar or wind.

4 The hydrogen and CO2 are then combined in two chemical processes, the first creates syngas, the second creates the synthetic fuel.

5 This can then be burned as is or blended with conventional fossil fuel.

A boffin involved with the project estimates that 770 square mile plant in the Sahara Desert could supply Europes transportation needs. The beauty of the scheme is that it is essentially carbon neutral as the process re-uses the CO2 emitted by the vehicles using the fuel.

A section in the 2nd half of the article went on to describe another more ambitious method of creating synthetic fuel by using bacteria. Mazda is involved in the development, working with scientists in Tokyo and Hiroshima. Like the first method, this is considered carbon neutral as the lab developed strains of E.coli used will re absorb the CO2 (emitted by vehicles using the fuel) in the production cycle. The main stumbling block with this method seems to be industrialising the process as currently only 'micro-litres'(?) are being produced.

So the good old internal combustian engine may still lead a long and happy life and the National grid may be able to breathe a sigh of relief!.

Edited by badbusdriver on 17/06/2018 at 19:46