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A Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air: Prometheus (YC W19)

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Re: A Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air: Prometheus (YC W19)

#281

Post by kaennar »

Hasz wrote: post #111
rmcginnis wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, this is Rob, founder of Prometheus. The conversion of CO2 and water to gasoline is not a super efficient process, likely 50-60% at best in the near term, but that's ok, if the electricity is from a zero carbon source like solar or wind, and the cost of the electricity is low (which these days it is). The CNT membranes are being made at full commercial scale now by my previous startup, Mattershift. Ready to go! We…

Hey, thanks, and best of luck, what a cool company. It seems like you're on the cusp of breaking even from yongjik's back of the envelope math, at least for the US commercial market. Is this a refinement of Fischer-Tropsch? However, I think you're barking up the wrong tree. The US military pays $hundreds of dollars to get fuel into a warzone. If you can make diesel (which I think you can), you don't have to go after…

That sounds like a particularly interesting answer, but I wonder what the power and factory requirements would be to have something like this at a FOB or base?

Surely most operating bases use gas powered generators to run and not solar right?

Re: A Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air: Prometheus (YC W19)

#282

Post by kaennar »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #56
Hasz wrote: post #12

Soooooo many questions. Gasoline is a distillate made up of several hydrocarbons -- is he synthesizing all of them, or just octane? What about additives, like anti-knock agents? Plans for diesel? No amount of fancy CNTs gets around thermodynamics. CO2 and H20 are far more stable, thermodynamically, than octane, it's partially why octane is a good fuel. Where does the extra energy come from? What is the efficiency of…

One thing not considered much on a balance sheet basis, there are a number of different costs. Capital, maintenance, energy, insurance, and taxes/fines/fees. Battery electric cars exceed or will eventually exceed gasoline/diesel powered cars on a capital, maintence, and energy cost basis. That sets up a situation where there'll be no market for synth gasoline because the capital and maintenance costs exceeds the ener…

Except that will only work for gasoline cars and wont happen for the next 10-15 years. It seems like this guys bet (per the other thread) is that commercial gasoline for cars is the starting point, but they want to move into jet fuel, container ships, and making the basic gasoline/oil that goes into plastics.

Considering there is no commercially available electric passenger aircraft on the horizon (as of now) and that commercial containers are unlikely to convert that seems like a solid market to go after.

Re: A Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air: Prometheus (YC W19)

#286

Post by maccard »

shawndrost wrote: post #152

If I wanted to assess my carbon footprint, and the cost to offset, and then pay to actually fund mitigation, how would I do that? Eg this doesn't seem fully credible, but is responsive https://www.terrapass.com/product/productindividuals-familie...

I believe you're looking at this the wrong way around. The consensus is that buying carbon offsets only works as the last resort, only after you've taken all of the steps to reduce your output in the first place - fly less, drive less, eat less meat, eat local produce, reduce the amount of products you buy. If you're buying a carbon offset to feel better about your lifestyle, you probably shouldn't bother.

After that, you still need to look into the actual product you're buying into directly and ensure that they're doing what they say they're doing, and that the programs are managed correctly (which is very difficult to do).

In terms of calculating your CO2, https://www.carbonindependent.org/ is pretty good for the UK. I'm not aware of an equivalent for the US though (sorry)

- http://theconversation.com/carbon-offsets-can-do-more-enviro... - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/16/carbon-o... - https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/is-carbon-... - https://www.nrdc.org/stories/should-you-buy-carbon-offsets - https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-04-11/carbon-offset... - https://theenergymix.com/2017/04/25/carbon-offsets-dont-redu...

Re: A Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air: Prometheus (YC W19)

#287

Post by Kliment »

bobthepanda wrote: post #246
nordsieck wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the weight of batteries is a problem for larger vehicles that need long range, like a bus, truck, or plane. For those hydrogen might be better. China is already leading the world in electric busses. They work great. Busses are such good vehicles for batteries, that for some routes it may even make sense to run them with super-capacitors, with chargers embedded in the road at stops. Trucks are always going to be a p…

> China is already leading the world in electric busses. They work great. Busses are such good vehicles for batteries, that for some routes it may even make sense to run them with super-capacitors, with chargers embedded in the road at stops. Alberquerque had to return electric buses because they didn't perform up to the range requirements. Electric bus range goes down the moment you introduce any sort of elevation,…

Shenzhen has quite severe elevation differences (which is why a lot of it is unbuilt, even though land values are extremely high) but the bus network was planned to run mostly on the flat bits. HK, being heavily built up already, does not have the luxury of being able to do such planning.

Re: A Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air: Prometheus (YC W19)

#288

Post by effie »

Hasz wrote: post #111
rmcginnis wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, this is Rob, founder of Prometheus. The conversion of CO2 and water to gasoline is not a super efficient process, likely 50-60% at best in the near term, but that's ok, if the electricity is from a zero carbon source like solar or wind, and the cost of the electricity is low (which these days it is). The CNT membranes are being made at full commercial scale now by my previous startup, Mattershift. Ready to go! We…

Hey, thanks, and best of luck, what a cool company. It seems like you're on the cusp of breaking even from yongjik's back of the envelope math, at least for the US commercial market. Is this a refinement of Fischer-Tropsch? However, I think you're barking up the wrong tree. The US military pays $hundreds of dollars to get fuel into a warzone. If you can make diesel (which I think you can), you don't have to go after…

This is genius. Also, the US military can expand everywhere and force everyone to use only the new climate friendly american fuel (TM) for affordable price.

Re: A Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air: Prometheus (YC W19)

#289

Post by effie »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #2

After reading this article, all I can say is ... ugh. What I really wanted to know was "Where does the energy come from?", and the article didn't answer that at all. The world doesn't really have a "carbon" problem, it has an energy problem, and right now carbon fuels are the cheapest, most abundant source of energy. Even if you somehow got carbon capture to work, you're still going to have to power it - with solar,…

> The world doesn't really have a "carbon" problem, it has an energy problem

This is a very narrow-minded mistaken viewpoint. The world does have a serious problem with CO2 building up in the atmosphere. It also has energy need to sustain the current living standard and pace of development, but this is not a serious problem such as CO2! We could decide and enforce giving up the insane power consumption of today. But we cannot decide to pronounce the existing CO2 in the atmosphere and its destabilizing effect on climate to be a non-problem.

> carbon fuels are the cheapest, most abundant source of energy.

No, they are not. Carbohydrate fuel is the most convenient way to transport and use, but not the cheapest source of energy. The cheapest source of energy is renewables and possibly nuclear, if massive investments were made into infrastrusture and safety.

Re: A Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air: Prometheus (YC W19)

#290

Post by breakyerself »

whenchamenia wrote: post #153
breakyerself wrote: post #39

This will be nice for legacy cars, but I would prefer my Tesla to pretty much any ICE car. Even if it was running on solar powered gasoline. The quiet, the torque, the instantaneous acceleration.

Bragging about your luxury car that costs more than my home wins you no friends, and is not even on topic.

My car cost 45,000 and it's not off topic. My point is that even if you make gasoline carbon neutral internal combustion cars are going to become obsolete. Electric is going to take over.
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