Engineers create gasoline from air and water

A small British company has found a way to create gasoline with just air and water. What engineers at Air Fuel Synthesis did was to extract carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water, which was then combined in a reactor with a catalyst to create methanol. This methanol was converted into 5 litres of gasoline.

 

Part of a $1.6 million dollar project to create environmentally friendly and sustainable fuel, it took 3 months for the chemical process to create this synthetic hydrocarbon liquid. In addition, as renewable energy was used to power the process, scientists say that creating carbon-neutral fuel is possible.

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The company predicts that they will be capable of building a larger commercial-scale plant that has the ability to produce a ton of gas a day. They’re also hoping to produce green aviation fuel, thus making airline travel more carbon-neutral.

 

In the meantime, the prototype is still too small-scale and inefficient, but further research and refinement can help to improve the situation. The company is also hoping to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere instead of relying on industrial sources. If successful, this would be great news for the environment.