rmcginnis

11 ms·

61.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
This won't be a limiting factor. It won't be stagnant air, and the diffusion rate for gases is high.
62.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Yes, we could probably just generate a map of where aluminum smelters and bitcoin miners operate to give us our short list of early sites.
63.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Not using nanospikes, but there are many proven heterogeneous catalysts now that can do the same job. Can't elaborate here, sorry!
64.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
We will likely make improvements primarily in capex, power costs, and transportation to lower our cost of producing fuel. Fundamental thermodynamics and overpotential limits will hold our efficiency to some cap, likely 75% or lower. We cou
65.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
To replace all gasoline in the US, it will require a substantial increase in renewable power plants. We estimate it will cost approx. $1T to build that capacity, although the cost could go down as it is done. To put that in context, the amo
66.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
The cost of solar and wind electricity is low and getting lower. SImilar investments have not been made in renewable heat (like geothermal or solar heat), so they are not as inexpensive. Also, a thermal process needs to run continuously (24
67.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Yes, you could do that now!
68.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Yes, that data is from a recent Science review article: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6438/eaav3506 I think the timing on this effort is right, from a cost of renewable power perspective, as well
69.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
We're going to take the power at the renewable power plant, so we will be certain that we are getting zero carbon electricity.
70.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Yes, we could definitely do remote location fueling stations, like remote airstrips, etc. Right now we're focused on replacing as much fossil fuel as possible with zero carbon fuel, so that has us focused on the commodity gasoline mark
71.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
We are doing the system shakedown now, and have started making fuel. We'd like to do a demo in the next few months, as long as it doesn't divert us from our timeline. Everything we're doing has been demonstrated separately, i
72.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Thanks!
73.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
We will know what our starting efficiency is before next year, when we start to produce and sell fuel. Anything above 25% works economically, and that has already been demonstrated.
74.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Yes, water is turned into fuel and oxygen. In most places the water can be obtained from moisture in the air (there is much more water than CO2 in air, and we are already mining the air, so we can get both). In the process the fuel is separ
75.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Correct!
76.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
In the long term, electric vehicles may indeed replace ICE cars. That would be awesome. One way to see what we're doing is to make sure the path to that future is good. We can't burn fossil fuels while we wait to replace the exist
77.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Thanks!
78.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Our current prototype is the size of a refrigerator. One of the cool things about our tech is that it can work well at small scale. We don't have to get to a billion dollar plant to get the economics right. We could make a system to fi
79.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Google X did a project to remove CO2 from seawater and turn it into fuel. It was called project Foghorn: https://x.company/projects/foghorn/ They couldn't get the economics right, but did succeed in making fu
80.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Demonstrated overall conversion efficiencies for CO2 to fuels are already in the 25-50% range, depending on the fuel. We are confident we can get to at least 50% for our process. We will not be taking renewable power away from other uses -
81.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
We are designing our systems to run intermittently, to match the intermittent availability of renewable power. The capital cost of our systems is expected to be low enough for us to run profitably even if we are only operating 50% of the ti
82.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
In the near term, we will remove the damage caused by fossil fuel use. Our fuel will burn much cleaner, so that's also helpful. In the medium to long term, cars will switch to electric, but now we'll have enough time to do that. A
83.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
I totally agree on skepticism. We are working hard to prove our economics. We are targeting selling renewable gasoline from the air for a profit next year. It will be much better for air quality too!
84.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
The cost of the agricultural feedstocks to biofuels are not easy to reduce further, whereas renewable electricity is getting less expensive and likely has much further to go. I think CO2 to fuel will have a decisive cost advantage over biof
85.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
We could use the alcohols as fuels directly (in flex fuel vehicles), but this wouldn't address the much larger market for gasoline. It's a simple and inexpensive upgrade, so makes sense to do it. We will definitely take advantage
86.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
We will just have to agree to a purchase power agreement (PPA), and others will build the renewable power plants for us. We will be going for very large scale, so will help to drive electricty prices down from where they are now. There is a
87.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
We are going for the whole gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel market. The 100% efficient energy content of gasoline is approx. 34 kWh/ gallon. At 60% efficiency in converting renewable electricity to chemical energy, that would be approx.
88.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
We'll need a lot more wind and solar, so Prometheus will drive the expansion of these. We'll start out taking intermittent power that's low cost (wind at midnight, for example), but will soon have resources built for us to ex
89.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
The inputs are zero carbon, but there will be life cycle (LCA) impacts in the materials of construction. We'll likely be well in carbon negative territory even including materials, and will do a LCA to verify this when we get a chance.
90.
by rmcginnis 7y ago
Patented, yes. You could do the fuel synthesis in water on a hobby level, and use a thermal still to get something flammable, but you wouldn't be able to use it in an engine. It's pretty fascinating to work on though.

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