British Firm Produces Liquid Fuel From Water and Thin Air

Posted by Heartmind _Featured_, Alternative Energy, Science Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

Air Fuel Synthesis (AFS), a small firm in Stockton-on-Tees, UK, has succeeded in in synthesizing gasoline from water and carbon dioxide (CO2) extracted from air. The Independent reported on Friday that the company has manufactured five liters of gas since August using a small refinery at its demonstrator plant. While that is a small volume to start with, AFS plans larger demonstrations and commercial-scale production. Essentially, the process will allow renewable energy to be converted into usable fuel in a sustainable carbon-neutral process.

Tim Fox, head of energy and the environment for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) in London, told The Independent: “It sounds too good to be true, but it is true. They are doing it and I’ve been up there myself and seen it. The innovation is that they have made it happen as a process. It’s a small pilot plant capturing air and extracting CO2 from it based on well-known principles. It uses well-known and well-established components, but what is exciting is that they have put the whole thing together and shown that it can work.”

AFS admits that “For some people, reading some of the more lurid reports perhaps, the process seems just too good to be true.” However, the company insists that “we are serious scientists, engineers and business people” with a process that really works and that can be scaled up to commercial levels of production. Independent engineering analysis has confirmed that “a 1-tonne a day production plant taking carbon from a point source such as a brewery, distillery or aerobic digestor (which can be built within 18-24 months of funding) can be competitive with equivalent specialist fossil fuels and commercially viable.” Not only that, the company says, “an AFS plant will be non-polluting and provide a secure supply of fuel from a containerized unit located wherever required.”