A British company, Air Fuel Synthesis [1] recently announced that they managed to create five litres of synthetic petrol from air.

 

 

Their process uses carbon-dioxide from air, combines it with hydrogen (from split water molecules) and thanks to a catalyst it eventually turns it into methanol, and afterwards petrol.

 

In its current phase the process is quite expensive and low-scale but it could be stepped up for the future. Furthermore, it currently uses electricity from the National Grid, however if it’s supplied from only renewable source, it could be a completely ‘clean method‘.

 

 

While it could be a great way for storing energy, there are some who doubt it’s efficiency and whether it can achieve a high-enough rate to provide a significant share as a fuel source. [2]

 

 

The company is not the only one in this field. Icelandic Carbon Recycling International [3] already captures carbon-dioxide for creating renewable methanol – so called RM. It can be blended with gasoline for cars or used for biodiesel.

 

 

Also, in 2009 the Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology [4] announced that they were able to convert carbon-dioxide into methanol, while Isis Innovation [5] also has a patent pending in this area.

 

Linc Energy’s one key research area is the gas-to-liquid process, [6] while the company UOP earlier teamed up with the University of California [7] to focus on turning carbon-dioxide into methanol.

 

 

Therefore with so many companies working on how to solve two problems at once, in the future we may be using carbon-dioxide for running our vehicles.

 

 

 

 

[1] http://www.airfuelsynthesis.com

 

[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20003650

 

[3] http://www.carbonrecycling.is/

 

[4] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090416102247.htm

 

[5] http://www.isis-innovation.com/licensing/4425.html

 

[6] http://www.lincenergy.com/gas_to_liquids.php

 

[7] http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/spinning-pollution-into-liquid-gold-384/