Synthetic gasoline - theres hope for us after all!

[Silver86]

http://www.gizmag.com/breakthrough-promises-150-per-gallon-synthetic-gasoline-with-no-carbon-emissions/17687/

short, but interesting read... i hope its true!

[SCHM1AN]

that would be real nice! I'm getting a little tired of paying $3.20+/gal for fuel, and from what I've heard, that price is about to go up. This would certainly be a welcome addition

[twicks69]

There is also Joule Unlimited:

An industrial process which uses genetically modified bacteria to manufacture gasoline/diesel/kerosene directly from dirty water (sea water, waste water, etc.), CO2 from the atmosphere and the sun.

Cambridge, Mass. – September 14, 2010 – Joule Unlimited, Inc., pioneer of Liquid Fuel from the Sun™, today announced the issuance of a U.S. patent covering its breakthrough conversion of sunlight and waste carbon dioxide (CO2) directly into liquid hydrocarbons that are fungible with conventional diesel fuel. Unlike biofuel processes that require costly intermediates such as sugar, algal or agricultural biomass, Joule is the first to achieve and patent a direct, single-step, continuous process for the production of hydrocarbon fuels requiring no raw material feedstocks – setting the stage for fossil fuel replacement at unprecedented efficiencies and costs as low as $30 per barrel equivalent.

Joule Unlimited (http://www.jouleunlimited.com/) | Patent grant (http://www.jouleunlimited.com/news/2010/joule-awarded-patent-renewable-diesel-production-sunlight-and-co2) | Wiki On Joule Unlimited (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_Unlimited)

Joule produces clean, infrastructure-compatible fuels directly from sunlight and waste CO2 in a single-step, continuous process that requires no costly biomass intermediates, processing or dependency on precious natural resources. Joule leverages a completely novel SolarConverter™ system to manage the entire production cycle with up to 50X the efficiencies of biofuel production.

Requiring only sunlight, waste water and CO2 from the atmosphere, this system can produce renewable diesel fuel in virtually unlimited quantities at costs as low as $30/barrel equivalent, overcoming the challenges of oil exploration and production.

Check out the people on the companies board, serious players.

[Larrygto]

At what octane I wonder?

[Holeshot]

Bad ass!! This would seriously fuck the oil companies. Bout time.

[GHOSST]

Makes me wonder if stuff like this has been around for some time, because you have to believe there are alternatives to fuel/power/environment, but the powers at be won't make any money off clean living... There is no reason to change anything or move ahead.. Its not profitable.

In the end its all about big business making big money...

But we can hope!!

[jbiscuit]

Would be awesome if they could bring back a higher quality fuel made synthetically. High octane here we come! Maybe I should build my motor with 13:1 compression slugs then? :)

[FoxStang]

Makes me wonder if stuff like this has been around for some time, because you have to believe there are alternatives to fuel/power/environment, but the powers at be won't make any money off clean living... There is no reason to change anything or move ahead.. Its not profitable.

In the end its all about big business making big money...

But we can hope!!


Huh? The "green" industry makes billions a year now with products that are neither cost effective nor efficient than their alternatives.

Though it will be interesting to see where this goes, big problem I see would be keeping up with demand. You better believe we're gonna see much higher gas prices the more these tech's are researched, oil will want the last word.

[GHOSST]

Huh? The "green" industry makes billions a year now with products that are neither cost effective nor efficient than their alternatives.

Though it will be interesting to see where this goes, big problem I see would be keeping up with demand. You better believe we're gonna see much higher gas prices the more these tech's are researched, oil will want the last word.

This sounds better. :thumbsup

[Prince Valiant]

color me skeptical.

Not that what they claim to do is impossible...it's not. But oftentimes you hear these "too good to be true" claims from companies like this in large part because they're looking for investors, so very best case scenario's are presented.

They claim to compete w/ oil @ $50/bbl, but how long will it take to get to that level of efficiency? How much land/space is needed to generate the kind of volumes needed to satisfy just the US needs for oil/gas? What resources might be displaced to produce these volumes if possible? Is external energy required and what is the reliability of that source?

these aren't un-surmountable hurdles and perhaps play no concern whatsoever (such as the land space...not being familiar w/ the process, it may require little space, no more so than what's similar to current refining facilities, etc).

What's worse, are these claims so optimistic so as to perhaps go after gov't grants/investments as everyone "goes green?" Like the synfuel movement of the late 70's/into the 80's, where 80 billion of gov't (re: our) dollars went for naught...i mean, quite literally little to nothing came from the spending of such a vast sum of money.

Its not to say I think what they're claiming isn't possible since it could come to fruition. I just wouldn't invest too much of my savings into such an endeavor.