4 ms·

If you create hydrocarbon fuels with sequestered CO_2, driven by nuclear electricity, you have a clean, energy-dense battery. Plus, you don’t have to retrofit t

If you create hydrocarbon fuels with sequestered CO_2, driven by nuclear electricity, you have a clean, energy-dense battery. Plus, you don’t have to retrofit the entire automobile fleet.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
>Plus, you don’t have to retrofit the entire automobile fleet. The entire transportation fleet, a good chunk of the grid and a good chunk of the infrastructure for heating things.
throwawayboise 5y ago
But big auto bought into EVs and climate change once they realized it was a way to make everyone have to buy new cars. So your idea is a non-starter.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago
  Except most manufacturers are losing money on every EV they sell.
- kibwen 5y ago
  People already cycle through cars quite frequently. Big Auto doesn't need to convince anybody to buy a new car. This would be a purposeless conspiracy.
- wyager 5y ago
  I don't think it's about making everyone buy new cars as much as about realizing that there's a new category of ultra-palatable government subsidies for them to cash in on.
edot 5y ago
How long does it take for CO2 sequestered in the ground to form hydrocarbon chains?
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  Thousands? Probably millions of years. Far longer than human civilization/species will last or need to worry about.
radicalbyte 5y ago
Sort of - but it doesn't solve the issue with air quality. Electrification of transport isn't just about CO2. We'll see more instant benefits from having air we can breathe.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  Air quality is a problem that basically all of the first world has solved to varying extents that depend mostly on whether the local areas are affected are rich enough that it tops their lists of problems. When the developing world gets rich they'll care too.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    Is that why the richest people in london enjoy illegally toxic air? https://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press/top-court-confirms-uk-has-broken-air-pollution-law/ https://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press/top-co... Every megacity is mega polluted, you cant have clean air with cars
- dividedbyzero 5y ago
  Since you couldn't realistically replace all ICE vehicles right away, it'd help ease the transition and especially in rural areas, air quality might not be a big concern anyway. If you end up with a surplus of clean gas, you could just burn it in dedicated plants and take care of the NOx there, or use it for aviation and in agriculture.
- epistasis 5y ago
  A lot of the air pollution from cars is from brake dust and tire micro particles. EVs do result in less brake dust, but the tires are still a problem. And if you live on the West coast, it was recently discovered that an essential chemical used for tire durability and safety causes mass deaths in salmon. (Or rather, the chemical breaks down into another chemical, which causes mass salmon death, and probably other fish death too). I will appreciate never having to hear a damn diesel truck again, however. Those things should be taxed heavily for noise pollution in addition tk their massive particulate emissions.
hagbard_c 5y ago
Just make sure to do something about NOx emissions, the cause of the downfall of Diesel in many countries. As long as you burn just about any fuel - hydrocarbon or otherwise - using air you'll end up with NOx as a combustion by-product. Filtering out nitrogen from air is possible - zeolites are used for this purpose in oxygen concentrators - but hard to do at a high enough capacity to satisfy the needs of even modest-sized ICEs so a post-combustion NOx capture/conversion step will be needed regardless of the provenance of the fuel [1]. [1] http://www.meca.org/technology/technology-details?id=5&name=Catalytic%20Converters http://www.meca.org/technology/technology-details?id=5&name=...
jhallenworld 5y ago
They call them e-fuels.. but the overall efficiency is low. There is a recent Engineering Explained video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d0MPg7DxbY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d0MPg7DxbY But liquid fuels are incredibly convenient, so maybe they will be worth the high price in certain applications. For example in jet engines for airplanes.

If you create hydrocarbon fuels with sequestered CO_2, driven by nuclear electricity, you have a clean, energy-dense battery. Plus, you don’t have to retrofit the entire automobile fleet.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

>Plus, you don’t have to retrofit the entire automobile fleet. The entire transportation fleet, a good chunk of the grid and a good chunk of the infrastructure for heating things.

throwawayboise 5y ago

But big auto bought into EVs and climate change once they realized it was a way to make everyone have to buy new cars. So your idea is a non-starter.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago
Except most manufacturers are losing money on every EV they sell.
kibwen 5y ago
People already cycle through cars quite frequently. Big Auto doesn't need to convince anybody to buy a new car. This would be a purposeless conspiracy.
wyager 5y ago
I don't think it's about making everyone buy new cars as much as about realizing that there's a new category of ultra-palatable government subsidies for them to cash in on.

edot 5y ago

How long does it take for CO2 sequestered in the ground to form hydrocarbon chains?

stjohnswarts 5y ago
Thousands? Probably millions of years. Far longer than human civilization/species will last or need to worry about.

radicalbyte 5y ago

Sort of - but it doesn't solve the issue with air quality. Electrification of transport isn't just about CO2. We'll see more instant benefits from having air we can breathe.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
Air quality is a problem that basically all of the first world has solved to varying extents that depend mostly on whether the local areas are affected are rich enough that it tops their lists of problems. When the developing world gets rich they'll care too.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  Is that why the richest people in london enjoy illegally toxic air? https://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press/top-court-confirms-uk-has-broken-air-pollution-law/ https://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press/top-co... Every megacity is mega polluted, you cant have clean air with cars
dividedbyzero 5y ago
Since you couldn't realistically replace all ICE vehicles right away, it'd help ease the transition and especially in rural areas, air quality might not be a big concern anyway. If you end up with a surplus of clean gas, you could just burn it in dedicated plants and take care of the NOx there, or use it for aviation and in agriculture.
epistasis 5y ago
A lot of the air pollution from cars is from brake dust and tire micro particles. EVs do result in less brake dust, but the tires are still a problem. And if you live on the West coast, it was recently discovered that an essential chemical used for tire durability and safety causes mass deaths in salmon. (Or rather, the chemical breaks down into another chemical, which causes mass salmon death, and probably other fish death too). I will appreciate never having to hear a damn diesel truck again, however. Those things should be taxed heavily for noise pollution in addition tk their massive particulate emissions.

hagbard_c 5y ago

Just make sure to do something about NOx emissions, the cause of the downfall of Diesel in many countries. As long as you burn just about any fuel - hydrocarbon or otherwise - using air you'll end up with NOx as a combustion by-product. Filtering out nitrogen from air is possible - zeolites are used for this purpose in oxygen concentrators - but hard to do at a high enough capacity to satisfy the needs of even modest-sized ICEs so a post-combustion NOx capture/conversion step will be needed regardless of the provenance of the fuel [1]. [1] http://www.meca.org/technology/technology-details?id=5&name=Catalytic%20Converters http://www.meca.org/technology/technology-details?id=5&name=...

jhallenworld 5y ago

They call them e-fuels.. but the overall efficiency is low. There is a recent Engineering Explained video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d0MPg7DxbY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d0MPg7DxbY But liquid fuels are incredibly convenient, so maybe they will be worth the high price in certain applications. For example in jet engines for airplanes.