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I wonder what efficiencies look like for making hydrocarbons from atmospheric CO2 and water.
by worker767424 5y ago
I wonder what efficiencies look like for making hydrocarbons from atmospheric CO2 and water.
- sbierwagen 5y agoNot wonderful, since atmospheric CO2 is so dilute. You need either a hefty carbon tax or a ban on oil extraction to make the economics work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_fuel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_fuel Our current spike in natural gas and oil prices is something of a dry run for what carbon taxes would look like. So far it doesn't seem like the approval ratings of the governing party can survive it.
- lazide 5y agoNot great, not terrible [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_proces...] Not price competitive with fossil fuels, but then not much is - hard to beat ‘mega joules for free*’ as it were.
- Swenrekcah 5y agoNot disagreeing but just reminding. It’s hard to compete with “let everyone else in the world pay for the true cost of this energy”. That’s what makes fossil affordable and why we need carbon taxes right this second.
- nfriedly 5y agoIsn't that basically what trees do? Solar-powered, too!