Los Alamos* says we can make gasoline with CO2 extracted from air -- plus water and energy. Furthermore, economic large-scale production is possible with off-the-shelf equipment and known processes. Result: Green Gasoline.
The Los Alamos concept was named Green Freedom, mainly, because it promises freedom from foreign oil by producing gasoline with a carbon-neutral power source. The main steps are:
1. Obtain CO2 from the atmosphere
2. Split H2O into H2 and O2
3. Combine H2 and CO2 to produce methanol
4. Convert methanol into gasoline.
Potassium carbonate solution is used to absorb CO2 to form bicarbonate ions. Followed by an electrolytic stripping process, CO2 is recovered for use in the methanol production with H2. Methanol is then converted into gasoline by the Mobil methanol-to-gasoline process.
Green Gasoline is here gasoline that is produced with a carbon-neutral power source from carbon dioxide recovered from air and some water. The Los Alamos concept meets that definition. Their design study included a cost analysis based on a nuclear reactor as the power source.
What do you think of the coupling of the CO2 in the air to gasoline production via a carbon-neutral power source?
*GREEN FREEDOM - A Concept for Producing Carbon-Neutral Synthetic Fuels and Chemicals, LANL report LA-UR-07-7897 by F. Jeffrey Martin and William L. Kubic, Los Alamos, NW, November 2007.
