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Major airlines are getting serious about hydrogen-powered planes
- PaulHoule 5y agoI can't get it why there isn't a serious industry effort towards methane-powered planes. Methane would require a major redesign of the aircraft and fuel system similar to hydrogen but not as extreme (it's much more energy dense.) Some studies have suggested that the economics of methane from conventional sources could be better than current jet fuels. There is a lot of talk about synthesizing jet fuel with this terribly uneconomical process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_proces... using atmospheric CO2 to either produce or replace CO. That process requires a knife-edge balance between chemistry that builds up and tears down hydrocarbons so you have a huge factory that produces a trickle of fuel. Methane is much easier to synthesize.
- _hypx 5y agoMethane is a potent greenhouse gas. It's possible that airliners aren't interested in a fuel that won't fully solve the problem.