It ’s the holy grail in energy production : raise a fuel that is both carbon neutral and can be poured directly into our current cars without the need to retrofit . There are score of companies out there trying to do just that using veggie oil , algae , and even the microbes set up in panda quarter to turn bamboo into fuel .
This week , German car manufacturer Audi hasdeclaredthat they have been able to create an " e - diesel , " or diesel containing fermentation alcohol , by using renewable energy to develop a liquid fuel from nothing more than water and C dioxide . After a commissioning stage of just four month , the plant in Dresden maneuver by sportsmanlike tech fellowship Sunfire has managed to produce its first batch of what they ’re calling “ blue crude oil . ” The production liquid is compose of long - chain hydrocarbon compounds , interchangeable to fossil fuels , but free from S and aromatics and therefore burns lampblack - free .
The first footmark in the operation call for harnessing renewable energy through solar , steer or hydropower . This energy is then used to wake water to temperatures in nimiety of 800oC ( 1472oF ) . The steam is then interrupt down into oxygen and H through high temperatureelectrolysis , a process where an electric current is passed through a solution .
The hydrogen is then take away and sundry with carbon monoxide under high heating and pressure level , make a hydrocarbon merchandise they ’re predict " blue crude . " Sunfire arrogate that the synthetic fuel is not only more environmentally friendly than fogey fuel , but that the efficiency of the overall process — from renewable exponent to liquid hydrocarbon — is very high at around 70 % . The e - Rudolf Diesel can then be either sundry with even Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel , or used as a fuel in its own right .
But all may not be as it seems . The process used by Audi is actually called theFischer - Tropschprocess and has been known by scientist since the 1920s . It was even used by the Germans to turn ember into diesel during the Second World War when fuel provision lean brusque . The process is currently used by many different companies all around the world , especially in countries where reservation of oil are low but reserves of other fossils fuel , such as gas and ember , are high .
And it would seem that Audi are n’t the first to reckon about using biogas facilities to produce carbon neutral biofuels either . Another German company calledChorenhas already made an attempt at produce biofuel using biogas and the Fischer - Tropsch process . second byShellandVolkswagen , the ship’s company had all the support and funding it needed , but in 2011 it filed for bankruptcy due to impracticalities in the process .
Audi pronto accept that none of the processes they use are new , but take it ’s how they ’re going about it that is . They say that increasing the temperature at which the water is split increases the efficiency of the operation and that the thriftlessness estrus can then be recovered . Whilst their announcement might not be annunciate a new fogy fuel - free era , the technical school of turn gullible power into man-made fuel could have applications as a battery to lay in superfluous DOE produced by renewables .
