This machine turns water into usable fuel

If we’re going to make a move away from fossil fuels, it’s not going to happen overnight; too much of our existing infrastructure and technology is based on coal and petroleum, which would take a lot of time and money to replace. However, synthetic fuels would be a good interim option, especially if they could be cleanly produced — as Sunfire GmbH has done. The Dresden-based cleantech company has unveiled a rig — the first of its kind — that uses what it calls “Power-to-Liquid” technology to convert H2O and CO2 into liquid hydrocarbons — synthetic petrol, diesel and kerosene. The technique is based around the Fischer-Tropsch process developed in 1925, combined with solid oxide electrolyser cells (SOECs). The SOECs are used to convert electricity — supplied by renewable sources such as wind and solar — to steam. Oxygen is removed from this steam to produce hydrogen. In the next step of the process, this hydrogen is used to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) — harvested from the atmosphere, precipitated at biogas facilities or gathered using waste gas processing — to carbon monoxide (CO); and the resultant H2 and CO are then synthesised into high-purity fuel using the Fischer-Tropsch process. Excess heat from the process is then used to create more steam — ensuring an efficiency rate, Sunfire claims, of 70 percent.