Experts have learned to make fuel from the air

At the German Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe scientists managed to develop a pilot plant that allows extracting fuel directly from the air, simultaneously clearing it from carbon dioxide. The advantage of this method was complete independence from the sun, wind and other sources of green energy.

Engineers plan to raise the efficiency of the installation to 60%. In actual form, it is able to produce about 10 liters of fuel per day. In the second version of the generator, the productivity is planned to increase by 200 liters, and at the final stage to bring it to the level of 1500-2000 liters per day. The modularity of development allows to increase it in parallel.

The designed generator is completely self-contained. The main condition is the transportation of containers and their placement in the immediate vicinity of the power plant. Obtaining fuel consists of four main stages of processing.

The surrounding air passes through the porous filters. At this stage, the filter elements retain carbon dioxide, and after heating to 95°C, release it. The purified gas is pumped out and hydrogen and carbon monoxide are obtained by electrolytic splitting with the evaporation of water. These components can already be used in the industry, but to obtain liquid fuel, several more technological processes need to be carried out.

Thanks to the Fischer-Troch Process, synthetic fuel is converted into molecules with long chains of hydrocarbon in a microstructural reactor over a large area in a small volume. After hydrocracking, during which part of the molecular chains is destroyed, a synthetic fuel is obtained — gasoline, kerosene or diesel. The final stage is the fuel run through a platinum-zeolite catalyst, after which the air literally becomes a source of energy for cargo transport, aircraft, and ships.