The fuels that nature has provided us are basically hydrocarbons and considering how abundantly Hydrogen and Carbon is available, one has to ask this question: Why can’t we produce our own hydrocarbon fuel? The process that would make this happen was unknown until now. Meet the German company Sunfire, that has a solution to it. Sunfire claims that it can use regular water with CO2 harvested from the environment and can create high quality hydrocarbon fuels.
The rig is named ‘Power to Liquid Technology’ and it works by creating steam via electricity. Sunfire has pointed out that this electricity will be generated by making use of renewable and green sources such as solar or wind. The steam is then stripped off of Oxygen leaving only Hydrogen behind. The rig can collect CO2 from almost all sources. The next step involves making this CO2 react with the H2 gas to create Carbon monoxide, which is then assembled into chains with the H2 gas. Sunfire claims that it is capable of coming up with some very particular hydrocarbon molecules. Once these molecules are suspended in water; you have the fuel ready!
The technology is still in development phase and therefore, its efficiency isn’t really gauged by the picture. The rig takes a day to create a single barrel of fuel, whereas the conventional oil rig produces 250 barrels per day. Sunfire’s rig has a seven-figure cost, however, the second version will reportedly be more efficient and built for only a fraction of this rig’s cost. Check out the video below for more details:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D055qqVNc1E