Fuel out of thin air: CO2 capture from air and conversion to methanol (2020)

Quick summary: &quot;Given sources of Carbon and Hydrogen plus massive energy inputs, you can synthesize hydrocarbons!&quot;<p>I feel like the headlines always try to pretend you&#x27;re getting energy out of the CO₂ rather than putting energy into a hydrocarbon energy storage chemical.<p>Question of course is economics of converting some (hopefully clean-ish) energy into stored hydrocarbon chemical bond energy and then combusting it in a vehicle vs. just digging up hydrocarbons and combusting them.

I&#x27;ve seen a bunch of these over the years; still waiting for one that will get traction. The changing cost of oil (mainly making externalities fiscally concrete) may change the equation.<p>The most interesting I ever ran across was people doing artificial photosynthesis to produce H2 and combustable oil, e.g. Nate Lewis&#x27; group at Cal Tech. Same problem: contemporary economics.<p>I&#x27;m glad people are still working on these problems.

A problem with ideas like these is that they have to be cheaper than burning fossil fuels and then capturing and sequestering CO2 to compensate. Both schemes capture CO2, so that part of the cost cancels out. Sequestering CO2 once you have it shouldn&#x27;t be very expensive, especially if it can be used to stimulate more petroleum production.<p>If you&#x27;re going to capture CO2 from the atmosphere it may be very favorable to do it at high latitude, where air is colder. I wonder if this could be sold to Russia as a way for them to make money in a post-fossil fuel world.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cell.com&#x2F;iscience&#x2F;fulltext&#x2F;S2589-0042(22)01836-3" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cell.com&#x2F;iscience&#x2F;fulltext&#x2F;S2589-0042(22)01836-3</a>

From a very high level I wonder if we could use nuclear power to drive a CO2 capture mechanism to ‘make up’ for all the time spent burning fossil fuels instead of nuclear?

Using such a process on plain air is not likely to ever be economically feasible as air only contains a tiny amount of CO₂, around 400 parts per million. If you want to run such a process run it on the exhaust stack of a gas-fired power plant since that contains a good amount of CO₂. Of course this only makes sense if the capture takes less energy than the power plant produces which can not be the case since it would violate the second law of thermodynamics [1].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.britannica.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;second-law-of-thermodynamics" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.britannica.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;second-law-of-thermodynam...</a>

&gt; Additionally, methanol, which is a liquid with a boiling point of 64.7 °C, is a superior fuel for internal combustion engines and fuel cells, as well as a convenient high density liquid hydrogen carrier. Methanol can be converted to ethylene and propylene through the MTO (methanol to olefins) process. Hence, the production of renewable methanol and the associated methanol economy holds significant potential to replace current fossil fuel-based economies.<p>No! Quite toxic. Don&#x27;t want that around consumer-facing products. (Any more than in the engine coolant and wiper fluid it&#x27;s already in)

&gt; When air was bubbled through potassium hydroxide dissolved in ethylene glycol and the CO2-loaded solution subsequently hydrogenated in the presence of H2 and a metal catalyst, complete conversion to methanol was observed at 140 °C.<p>Am I missing something? Isn&#x27;t the need for hydrogen gas here a constraint?<p>It&#x27;s either gonna be refined (steam reforming) or split from water.

Brought to you by the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. Mission statement:<p><i>&quot;The final solution to the hydrocarbon shortage will come only when mankind can produce unlimited cheap energy as with the promise of safer atomic energy and other alternate sources. With abundant cheap energy, hydrogen can be produced from sea water and then combined with carbon dioxide to produce hydrocarbons. In the meantime, however, it is essential that solutions be found that are feasible within the framework of our existing technological base. The Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute is at the forefront of this effort.&quot;</i>

That would be growing plants to convert CO2 to carbohydrates and sugars, sprouting them to uplift more carbohydrates to sugars, fermenting them and extracting the ethanol?<p>OK. Wrong -ol. So, do it wood chips..

I&#x27;d love to have a small scale synthesis setup that I can use to store my excess production of solar electricity in the summer. I waste many MWh curtailing solar production.<p>Some napkin math suggests I throw away enough photovoltaic energy in one summer season to more than cover all of my pickup truck driving.

The low temp requirements look promising, but wake me up when the cost of the system at scale is known.<p>Obviously things like long haul aviation need synthfuels, but I wouldn&#x27;t hold my breath that this will be the magic bullet for keeping the ICE relevant in the next century.

Note: This is from 2020

There are a million ways to produce smaller amounts of energy from larger amounts of grid energy. This isn&#x27;t really useful.

With enough energy input you can do a lot of interesting things. Question is where you get the energy from.

Does anyone know whatever happened to Prometheus Fuels?