Granted: It's like someone trying to announce a perpetual motion machine, but before preparing the pyre, explore a little more. According to the announcement of the British company Air Fuel Synthesis, have managed to produce five gallons of fuel through a process that removes carbon dioxide from the air, and hydrogen from water vapor. Although the experimental sued about three months, with improvements in the mechanism and the use of energy from renewable sources, fuel could create a much larger scale, to be used in activities that require a more balanced carbon footprint.
This kind of news will probably form the nightmares of senior executives of companies involved in the oil (not to mention Arab sheiks): What a brilliant mind with a couple of test tubes able to avoid making holes in the ground for fuel. So far, these nightmares have not materialized, and our dependence on oil remains intact, but that does not mean there are not people trying to change things. And that's how we find these developments. Get water and air fuel looks like something out of a science fiction novel, but a small company called Air Fuel Synthesis apparently has become reality.
The result was just five liters of fuel, and the whole process took three months, a level of efficiency that makes it impractical for commercial application in the short term. However, the potential is huge. The small pilot plant intake air carbon dioxide and hydrogen combined with steam from forming methanol (or methyl alcohol) which is subsequently converted to gasoline. The principles used are well documented, and the process was checked visually by members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London. According to Peter Harrison, CEO of Air Fuel Synthesis, the final product looks and smells like gasoline, but it is much cleaner and clearer than the petroleum.
What is the next step? Now that the proof of concept is complete, those involved will concentrate on increasing production capacity to around 1200 liters per day, using energy from renewable sources, and enter into production by 2015. Some possibilities have been considered, such as providing fuel to racing teams for greener activity, and not ruling out the possibility of developing jet fuel. The gas obtained in this conversion may be applied directly to internal combustion engines without modification. Efficiency is key, and oil has several decades of government insured, but we have to monitor Air Fuel Synthesis closely.
