101–110 of 291 posts
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"Unburning" CO2 takes energy. Where does your energy come from?
We use zero carbon solar and wind electricity. As long as the electricity source is zero carbon and low cost, it makes economic and practical sense to make zero carbon fuel.
Meanwhile, the internal combustion engine is perfectly capable of running on a whole slew of renewable fuels, including but not limited to hydrogen gas, methanol, etc.
It's not the most efficient in the long run, but it's a piece of the puzzle, especially when you consider the baseline energetic/carbon costs of building new vehicles from scratch.
P.s. lithium is a conflict mineral now.
Gasoline has energy density of 34.2 MJ/L, or 9.5 kWh/L[1]. Its retail price is about $3/gallon, or $0.8/L.
So, assuming 100% efficiency, the energy source for making gasoline should be ~$0.084/kWh to break even.
Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates 2022's solar/wind generation cost at $73.7 and $55.8 per MWh [2], or $0.0737 and $0.0558 per kWh.
Assuming wind power, gasoline generation has to be ~66% efficient to break even, which is (I guess) not physically impossible, but an incredible engineering challenge.
...and that's assuming retail price. I'm not an energy expert, but [3] seems to say that gasoline's current bulk price is ~$1.5/gallon, which pushes the technology firmly on the side of losing money.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source#...
[3] https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=e...
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Your children will die unless you lobby your representative to listen to this person. This shit is realer than any other crisis in the history of mankind and we face extinction if we do not fight it now. Pay attention.
I don't think inaction causing extinction is certain. All extinction scenarios involve unproven positive feedback loops like the clathrate gun hypothesis. It seems to me quite likely that billions of humans will survive in the remaining habitable regions, even if the fight for those regions turns into World War 3. Really it's not much worse than the Cold War-era nuclear war scenarios.
OK, I was curious so just did some math. Gasoline has energy density of 34.2 MJ/L, or 9.5 kWh/L[1]. Its retail price is about $3/gallon, or $0.8/L. So, assuming 100% efficiency, the energy source for making gasoline should be ~$0.084/kWh to break even. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates 2022's solar/wind generation cost at $73.7 and $55.8 per MWh [2], or $0.0737 and $0.0558 per kWh. Assuming wind power…
Any realistic scenario starts with some kind of regulation on carbon extraction and then worries about the economics of replacements. And technologies like this one that claim to be within a factor of two seem very worth investigating.
Whether it works or not, who knows.
The carbon costs of manufacturing a replacement fleet of cars is surely vast. Meanwhile, the internal combustion engine is perfectly capable of running on a whole slew of renewable fuels, including but not limited to hydrogen gas, methanol, etc. It's not the most efficient in the long run, but it's a piece of the puzzle, especially when you consider the baseline energetic/carbon costs of building new vehicles from sc…
> The carbon costs of manufacturing a replacement fleet of cars is surely vast.
Cars have finite lifetimes. You don't replace the ones on the road, you replace the ones we'll buy in the future.
And this one... well...
> P.s. lithium is a conflict mineral now
citation REALLY needed
This is really, fundamentally important technology. Emissions reduction will not work: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nations-are-not-r... > The authors of the report stated in a press release that the kind of drastic, large-scale action the planet desperately needs has yet to be seen, even though global emissions have reached record levels at 53.5 billion metric tons in 2017, with no signs of peaking. >…
It's still a band-aid solution. Should pursue - but don't have high expectations. It wouldn't address the other pollutants due to fossil fuels. It doesn't address methane (which are a quarter of GHG). If it makes energy more expensive there will be massive resistance and aligning governments worldwide will be intractable. You're not going to convince developing countries to increase their cost of energy. Root cause s…
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Nobody thinks they'll get net energy out of this. They're spending energy to make carbon-neutral liquid fuels. The energy would have to come from renewables or nuclear for this to be useful.
The energy return on energy invested is going to be abysmal. No more than 20% if that. That translates into synth gasoline at $30/gallon
OK, I was curious so just did some math. Gasoline has energy density of 34.2 MJ/L, or 9.5 kWh/L[1]. Its retail price is about $3/gallon, or $0.8/L. So, assuming 100% efficiency, the energy source for making gasoline should be ~$0.084/kWh to break even. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates 2022's solar/wind generation cost at $73.7 and $55.8 per MWh [2], or $0.0737 and $0.0558 per kWh. Assuming wind power…
If there were realistic competitors for fossil fuels, we wouldn't be worrying about a climate crisis in the first place. Nothing is going to compete with pumping fuel out of the ground, and it never will. Any realistic scenario starts with some kind of regulation on carbon extraction and then worries about the economics of replacements. And technologies like this one that claim to be within a factor of two seem very…
There might be political advantages to having a proven process with proven cost. $40/ton carbon tax is awfully arbitrary... Until carbon can be captured for $40/ton.
The carbon costs of manufacturing a replacement fleet of cars is surely vast. Meanwhile, the internal combustion engine is perfectly capable of running on a whole slew of renewable fuels, including but not limited to hydrogen gas, methanol, etc. It's not the most efficient in the long run, but it's a piece of the puzzle, especially when you consider the baseline energetic/carbon costs of building new vehicles from sc…
I'll try not to mention it next time I am in Cornwall then, so as not to start a fight - https://www.cornishlithium.com/