Solar jet fuel has been created for the first time

Maybe we won't suck up all of Earth's resources and destroy our planet just yet. Scientists say that they have created solar jet fuel using just sunlight, water and carbon dioxide for the very first time. That's basically creating fuel from thin air.

It's a damn impressive feat and puts us closer to the dream of creating renewable energy for our Earth-sucking moving boxes known as planes, cars and other transportation vehicles. European scientists have done this by using simulated, concentrated sunlight at a temperature of nearly 1300 degrees Fahrenheit to convert and separate water and carbon dioxide into a synthetic gas made of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. That synthetic gas can be turned into kerosene.

Solar jet fuel has been created for the first time

Is this cool or what?

Apparently, they haven't made much of the stuff, but are hoping that the fuel could be used and mass produced later on in the future:

The scientists, who've been working at this for four years under the SOLAR-JET project, have only made a jar of the solar jet fuel so far but they imagine a future where 20,000 liters of jet fuel could be made per day from a full-scale version.

Sadly, i don't expect this to see the light of day, at least for a looooooooooong time. This is especially considering the monopolisation of the natural resources industry, where money talks and any threats to the mass companies are distinguished. Let's hope this gets of the ground, and actually proves beneficial for us all.

a reply to: daaskapital

S&F!

Can that synthetic gas be turned into sugars?

Because sugars are also hydrocarbons ... and so maybe they could feed the 3rd world for super cheap from literally out of thin air as you stated in your OP!

Gas from thin air? Sugar from thin air! I like my thin air eggs over easy…

Unlimited fuel from thin air?

a reply to: daaskapital

Water, CO2 and sunlight eh?

If carbon dioxide becomes valued as a component of this sort of process, then that would totally change the way that vehicle manufacturers treat the issue of exhaust management, the way that other industries treat their own releases of CO2. If this comes off, then companies will treat waste CO2 as unacceptable, like throwing money away, and will seek to capture it for recycling into fuel.

This process also means that now, a barrel of oil will have more accessible units of energy inside it, because even the waste from burning the product of that barrel, will release more fuel components. If rolled out in a clever way, this technology could see the end of carbon dioxide as a waste product in the developed world. I would certainly have thought that China would be very interested in this technology, this breakthrough, as it would go some way toward solving many of their air quality problems, which they have been experiencing in their major population centers for some time.

All in all, I find this research, and the potential exhibited by it, to be very impressive.

a reply to: daaskapital

Furthermore ... the ocean contains all the stuff we need in bulk amounts ... both water and carbon dioxide!

Caution PDF file ...
CHAPTER 8: Introduction to the Hydrosphere (p). Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Seawater (PhysicalGeography.net | FUNDAMENTALS eBOOK )

Seawater also contains small amounts of dissolved gases. Many of these gases are added to seawater from the atmosphere through the constant stirring of the sea surface by wind and waves. The concentration of gases that can be dissolved into seawater from the atmosphere is determined by temperature and salinity of the water. Increasing the temperature or salinity reduces the amount of gas that ocean water can dissolve. Some of the important atmospheric gases found in seawater include: nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide (in the form of bicarbonate HCO3), argon, helium, and neon. Compared to the other atmospheric gases, the amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in saturated seawater is unusually large.

Can this process be applied to seawater for the same or greater effects

a reply to: daaskapital

Just shows we have nothing to worry about when it comes to running out of oil. There are many resources we can use to make fuel and energy for our civilization. Might be more difficult than getting oil but when the time comes we will make it happen and make if efficient.

Easy energy from easy to get oil is not the end of civilization.

a reply to: daaskapital

European scientists have done this by using simulated, concentrated sunlight -

simulated sunlight?

One small problem....is the energy we use to make the fuel.....greater than the energy the fuel will produce?
If so,.... we are gazing up another dead horses arse...just like several popular solutions the greenies are touting....

Making fuel from CO2, Water and Sunlight is just outstanding, i hope this can be duplicated to produce endless free fuel for the masses.

Free fuel is good but what is the waste that burning this fuel like? Its not good having billions of more engines running on cleanly produced fuel if using it just creates just as much pollutants as any other fuel.

originally posted by: wlasikiewicz
Making fuel from CO2, Water and Sunlight is just outstanding, i hope this can be duplicated to produce endless free fuel for the masses.

So basically we can now do synthetically what plants have been doing for billions of years?.. took us long enough.

Why are they focusing on this instead of alternatives? Don't you think that the money would have been better spent researching a replacement for fossil fuels, instead of finding out how to make them synthetically?

Sure, this is awesome, but I don't think its the solution. Seems to me like all its going to do is become a more expensive replacement once all the oil is used up.

But the idea would be to use the sun no? So I'm not sure what you mean?

originally posted by: stirling
One small problem....is the energy we use to make the fuel.....greater than the energy the fuel will produce?

Unlikely.

Water costs virtually nothing. Concentrated sunlight costs nothing. CO2 can be extracted from the air for as little as $100/ton.

I know the OP mentions jet fuel, but for the sake of argument let's assume jet fuel and gasoline are equivalent. Gasoline weighs about 6 lbs a gallon. One ton of gasoline would be about 333 gallons. So if we can convert one ton of CO2 into one ton of gasoline for the price of $100, that's 333 gallons of gasoline for about 30 cents a gallon. That's less than 1/10th the price at the pump.

So, can anyone tell me what it cost to produce the 1300 degree concentrated simulated sunlight?

Was the power for above sunlight generated at a coal burning power plant? So, that kinda squashed the "free" fuel idea, huh?

a reply to: Dragondark
We could also just use concentrated sunlight for free though.

a reply to: Dragondark

There are solar focusing arrays which are in existence already, which could be repurposed to industrialise this process, or new ones could be built. The lab sized apparatus you see is clearly designed so that the scientists working the knobs and switches could attain proof of concept.

Once they have, and acquire vast numbers of dollars to move the production of this fuel into the industrial phase, they will either take over, or have built, a large system of mirrors out in a desert somewhere, to focus the suns rays into a central location, and use the raw power of the sun to do what those massive simulator bulbs were doing. Once the system is installed, the cost of energy to run the experiment will be eradicated from the equation, leaving only the cost of installation to be worked off.

Given the potential this method has, I can see it being very efficient at paying that cost off considering the price of high octane fuel refinement as it stands today.

Gotta agree with Stirling and other of like mind. How much did it cost to make this fuel?

The scientists, who've been working at this for four years under the SOLAR-JET project, have only made a jar of the solar jet fuel so far but they imagine a future where 20,000 liters of jet fuel could be made per day from a full-scale version.

Sorry OP, doesn't sound all that promising. After 4 years only one jar? And to imagine a future when a whopping 20,000 liters of jet fuel could be made per day from a full scale version? How many full scale versions would be needed to produce enough jet fuel to make a difference? And how much energy would be used to create enough of the jet fuel needed?

How much jet fuel does a jet use if a jet used jet fuel???

I read the source article completely. I want to know more about the specifics of how this conversion is done, because I can think of many ways to produce concentrated sunlight.

If this ever makes it into the public domain, it could change the world. For that to happen, it would take some changes in certain laws I'm guessing. Imagine the town, city, or country that allows their citizens to start producing their own fuel... There would have to be some methods of storing it safely, etc., but just imagine.

Those scientists should make an effort to release their disovery completely in the public domain, if they haven't yet. Then it can be improved upon.

a reply to: BigfootNZ

maybe we should study plants more.
i feel that plants are like natural bio computers, as lively as humans (i consider human bodies as bio robots)
and may contain many information that we need to live in harmony.

peace.