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As a thought experiment if you could produce jet fuel using carbon captured from the atmosphere (and energy from zero-carbon sources) what other negative extern
by iandanforth 7y ago
As a thought experiment if you could produce jet fuel using carbon captured from the atmosphere (and energy from zero-carbon sources) what other negative externalities would remain from burning it in planes?
- twic 7y agoIf you mean "what externalities would come from using fuel made using an air-to-fuel process, rather than from oil", then perhaps none. If you mean "what externalities would come from turning CO2 into fuel and then burning it again to fly an aeroplane, rather than not flying that aeroplane", then that is a complicated and somewhat open question: https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-challenge-tackling-aviations-non-co2-emissions https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-challenge-tackling-avi...
- elihu 7y agoI would expect the biggest one to be the opportunity cost of what you could have done instead with that electricity besides make fuel. For instance, if, say, converting natural gas heating to electric is a better use of energy in terms of reducing greenhouse gasses, then maybe we should do that first. In the end, a lot of these sorts of proposals depend on cheap renewable energy, and if we can get enough solar and wind power installed then other goals become feasible. Fuel production is an interesting case because you can use surplus energy at times of low demand.