Make your gas at home.

[Jazzer]

Refrigerator-sized machine makes gasoline out of thin air

The Aircela acts like a mini direct air capture facility, sucking up carbon dioxide and then synthesizing it into real, usable gasoline for cars.

www.popsci.com

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Sounds too good to be true… not to mention a molecular improbability? Been awhile since I last studied this stuff…

 

[Jazzer]

Turning carbon dioxide into gasoline efficiently

Captured CO2 can be turned into carbon-neutral fuels, but technological advances are needed. In new research, a new catalyst increased the production of long-chain hydrocarbons in chemical reactions by some 1,000 times over existing methods.

news.stanford.edu

 

[pentode]

Refrigerator-sized machine makes gasoline out of thin air

The Aircela acts like a mini direct air capture facility, sucking up carbon dioxide and then synthesizing it into real, usable gasoline for cars.

www.popsci.com

All of the new carbon capture tech is very interesting science. In this case if I put my cynical hat on, I would bet that the economies of scale that would have to kick in to ever make this worth whatever it costs to build the reactor won't happen for a very long time.
If I leave my cynical hat on, it also sounds like a pretty good way to snag a few million in grant money from somewhere. Not that there's anything wrong with that - you can try to make the world a better place and get paid too, science has to start somewhere and we can't expect it all to be done by volunteers.

 

[Jazzer]

What’s not being discussed anywhere I’ve looked is input energy cost per gallon or other unit.

 

[pentode]

What’s not being discussed anywhere I’ve looked is input energy cost per gallon or other unit.

Just like fusion reactors

 

[SenorNoob]

Spoiler: From their website:

I. We Capture Carbon from the Air
Aircela’s machine uses a water-based solution containing potassium hydroxide to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) from ambient air. Air flows through a specially designed volume where it comes into contact with the liquid sorbent, allowing CO₂ to be captured efficiently.

II. We Split Water to Make Hydrogen
We use electrolysis to split water (H₂O) into hydrogen and oxygen using clean electricity. The hydrogen is kept and used in the next step. The oxygen is safely released. Simultaneously, the sorbent is regenerated to be used again in the capture step.

III. We Synthesize Fuel
The captured CO₂ and hydrogen are combined to create methanol. The methanol is then converted into gasoline using established chemical processes. The result is fossil-free, engine-ready gasoline — fully compatible with existing engines and infrastructure.

Sounds like it will use a whole lot of electricity.

Just the electrolysis costs quite a bit apparently. Highlight: ~$5 to $6/kg-H2

I can't find good numbers on what it takes make methanol from hydrogen. Just references to high heat and pressure. Heating and pressurizing using electricity are both power intensive too. Then there is the cost of whatever additives/other processes are necessary to convert methanol to something to replace gasoline. (I suspect this will only work for E85 compatible vehicles.)

I wouldn't be surprised if it requires it's own 200amp service running basically wide-open all the time. 17 gallons per week could end up costing a grand a month pretty quickly.