Carbon Fiber, Batteries and Clean Air from CO2

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Creators of a one-step process called STEP (Solar Thermal Electrochemical Photo) claim a world of benefits, including pulling carbon dioxide from the air and turning it into useful things, such as fuels, cement, and cheap carbon fiber.  The process can also purify and desalinate water, according to many of the 300 peer-reviewed papers by Dr. Stuart Licht of George Washington University and his graduate students. The elevator speech regarding their research can be found on the home page for the group.   “A new fundamental solar process has been introduced.  STEP efficiently removes carbon from the atmosphere and generates the staples needed by society, ranging from fuels, to metals, bleach and construction materials, at high solar efficiency and without carbon dioxide generation. By using the full spectrum of sunlight, STEP captures more solar energy than the most efficient solar cell or photoelectrochemical processes.” According to the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), the sample of nanofibers Dr. Licht showed participants at the Autumn Meeting of the …

Bacterium + Nitrogen = Ethanol

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78 percent of all the air we breathe is nitrogen, the most abundant gas in the Earth’s atmosphere.  This readily available substance may do more than just give us something for inspiration (there’s a pun there), it may power our vehicles and heat our homes.  The catch is that it has to be combined with the bacterium Zymomonas mobilis, which gives off ethanol when exposed to the gas. James B. McKinlay and a team of biologists at Indiana University at Bloomington work with a cluster of unlikely materials to produce, among other things, biofuels.  His laboratory posts the following description of the team’s work: “Nearly all of our society’s energy and chemical needs are met by fossil fuels. Microbes have evolved a profound diversity of metabolic attributes which can be harnessed as sustainable alternatives for the production of fuels and chemicals. Our lab seeks to understand the metabolism underlying the production of useful compounds and to engineer strains for enhanced production …

Will VW Take on Tesla?

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Volkswagen just bought a five-percent stake in a startup company called QuantumScape, a commercial spinoff of work done at Stanford University’s Nanoscale Prototyping Laboratory for Energy Conversion and Storage.  The Labroratory’s head, Fritz B. Prinz, Finmeccanica Professor of Engineering and Robert Bosch Chairman of Mechanical Engineering, explains: “Our team creates, models, and prototypes nanoscale structures to understand the physics of electrical energy conversion and storage. We are exploring the relation between size, composition, and the kinetics of charge transfer. We are also interested in learning from nature, in particular by studying the electron transport chain in plant cells.” (Note that the QuantumScape web site is curiously without detail, showing only four pretty pictures and making three or four non-controversial statements.  The most information comes on the Contact link.) Whatever they are doing, the Lab has caught the interest of not only Volkswagen’s CEO Martin Winterkorn, but produced a flood of often speculative articles from Bloomberg, EV World and other sources, …

New Clean Fuels –Different Approaches to Synthetic Liquid Fuels

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Two different companies attempting to provide clean energy and reduce carbon emissions are turning to CO2 emissions as a source for their drop-in fuel.  Others, such as Joule, have explored this path, using CO2 from the atmosphere or from industrial exhaust, mixing that with engineered algae, exposing it all to sunlight, and making a synthetic form of gasoline or Diesel fuel. Both of the new entries, NewCO2Fuels and Global Biofuels, use CO2 and sunlight with different technologies to achieve similar results. NCF explains its motivation and technique in its introduction.  “NewCO2Fuels is developing an innovative and breakthrough technology providing a revolutionary, cost-effective solution to two global concerns: CO2 emissions and diminishing liquid fuel reserves. Our product uses a proprietary technology that generates liquid fuels by using CO2 emissions and water as feedstock, and high-temperature heat sources such as concentrated solar energy.” The video shows the basic process, which can base its source “feedstock” on CO2 from gas well drilling, coal extraction, industrial …

Audi Opens e-Gas Plant in Germany

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Audi takes the environment seriously, and in a statement of corporate responsibility, shows that doing good for clean air can help the company do well in the competitive car market. “The Company is establishing a portfolio of sustainable sources of energy as part of its Audi e-gas project. Renewably generated electricity from wind or solar power, water and carbon dioxide are used to produce hydrogen and synthetic methane, the Audi e-gas. The plant that Audi has built in Werlte, Germany is now in the commissioning phase. It produces the fuel for the first CNG model from Audi, the new A3 Sportback g-tron, which will be launched before the end of the year.” Opening the Werlte e-gas plant will help Audi develop a chain of sustainable energy carriers, producing and distributing liquid fuels for which their cars will be specifically designed. According to Green Car Congress.com, the plant can convert six megawatts of input power, using renewable electricity for electrolysis to …

Carbon Free or Carbon Neutral – Could New Fuels Save Us?

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Three companies – Air Fuel Synthesis, Cool Planet Energy Systems, and Joule Unlimited – are generating comment and controversy for their approaches to creating different kinds of biofuels. They all promise extreme reductions in carbon emissions and lower prices at the pump. Their output could use existing infrastructure for delivery, making them all desire able commodities if their promise can be achieved. Cool Planet  Cool Planet Energy Systems claims to be, “The only company producing carbon negative fuels using plant photosynthesis to remove CO2 from our atmosphere.” Its now patented approach recycles its solid products back into the soil, and using more of the liquid fuel products cleans the air more quickly, according to the firm’s web site. The company’s process divides its output from plant-based sources into liquid fuel and bio-char, an activated carbon that can be used as a coal substitute or fertilizer and soil conditioner, in which instance it acts as a carbon sequestration material, reducing the …

24 Hours of LeMans – Hybrids, KERS and High Speeds

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The 24 Hours of LeMans is the quintessential motorsports event every year, pitting the top automobile racing teams in the world against the endurance trial of completing a full day’s run at “full chat,” as the British used to say, overcoming weather, wear and tear, and competing drivers. Traditionally populated with internal-combustion gasoline engine powered racers in many sizes and classifications, the race has seen inroads with turbo-diesels, hybrids, and hints there may be soon full electric competitors.  The most advanced class this year comprised a collection of formerly exotic technologies, with a variety of approaches to going fast. The race’s official web site explains, “The LM P1 class (Le Mans Prototype 1) welcomes machines at the leading edge of progress. All ideas are welcome: front or rear engines, petrol or diesel, turbocharged or atmospheric … But the big trend right now is the emergence of systems for kinetic energy recovery (KERS). Storage batteries or flywheel, returns energy to front …