Congratulations. I wish you the best.
Thanks!
Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
11–20 of 589 posts
Re: Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
#12Are you in direct competition with Carbon Engineering from BC, Canada?
Yes indeed.
Re: Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
#13So you are competing with batteries? I suppose batteries have much higher roundtrip efficiency, but maybe there are other advantages to your technology, like being able to rely on combustion engine cars?
The main advantage of renewable gasoline over batteries is that we can decarbonize the existing vehicle fleet without replacing it. Also, the very high energy density of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel will make sense for a long time in Jet aircraft, long haul trucks, and ocean container ships, for example.
Re: Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
#14Congrats. Thats awesome. Just guessing that real estate is going to be a consideration for this venture. Where (geographically) do you plan on operating? Is there any advantage to doing this in areas like Los Angeles/ Mexico City that naturally trap automobile emissions?
The best location is one that gives us access to the lowest electricity price. The CO2 and water are in air almost everywhere (in a desert environment the water is harder to get from the air, but CO2 is evenly distributed). We will be next to utility scale wind, solar, and other renewable sources.
Re: Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
#15This is really cool, I have a two questions the last one maybe a bit sillier than the first:
- I'm not a chemist, maybe you said this implicitly, but roughly at what rate would this capture a kilogram of carbon?
- Why did you choose the name 'Prometheus' the titan who created man, gave us fire, and as punishment for the latter part, had his liver eaten out by a vulture every day for eternity?
Re: Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
#16how many watts today is required to produce one liter of fuel using both your membrane and the conventional way requiring distillation? What are your long-term watts/liter targets ?
Maybe a non-membrane version could be attempted that used renewable energy (sunlight) to do the boiling? Certain geographic regions might have the right combination of plentiful sunlight, water, and wind to minimize all these costs?
Re: Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
#17Can you talk a bit about the waste-water left over? Assuming it's non-potable, what does the disposal path look like? How much of such water is there at scale, e.g., water-per gallon of petro-product? Thanks, sounds awsome.
Re: Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
#18IMHO this is a waste of time. You are wasting clean energy sources to make dirty ones -- at best a 50-60% loss of energy.
And you end up with dirty fuel, that further produces CO2, in which the cycle repeats, with a net loss.
In the near future, cars and trucks will be electric. This is shuffling deckchairs on the titanic. Why not put 100% of your efforts into electric vehicles powered by 100% renewable sources?
Re: Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
#19How could the math possibly work out on this? If a gallon of gas holds 33.70 kWh of energy, and you can get cheap electricity for $0.1/kWh, you're looking at $3.37/gallon if you have a magical process that converts with 100% efficiency. Even if you hit your efficiency goal, which would be impressive, who is paying $7/gallon for gas? Just buy an electric car. This can only possibly be useful when all of the oil is gone and there is no other alternative, right?
Re: Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline
#20What are the companies that do the up conversion to final fuel? Are there any other products remaining after the conversion from alcohols such as propane, butane etc..?
Some of the companies that do upgrading include Vertimass, Gevo, Swedish Biofuels, for example, and there are some methods that are not under patent protection that anyone can use. Basically a catalyst that dehydrates the alcohols and oligomerizes them into longer carbon chains. No other products than a combustible fuel.