Carbon Neutral Jet Fuel

[Joel Weber]

Sucking carbon dioxide from air is cheaper than scientists thought claims

Carbon Engineering’s design blows air through towers that contain a solution of potassium hydroxide, which reacts with CO2 to form potassium carbonate. The result, after further processing, is a calcium carbonate pellet that can be heated to release the CO2. That CO2 could then be pressurized, put into a pipeline and disposed of underground, but the company is planning instead to use the gas to make synthetic, low-carbon fuels. Keith says that the company can produce these at a cost of about $1 per litre.

If it's really possible to make jet fuel from atmospheric carbon dioxide for $3.79/gallon, why isn't that happening right now? The cheaper FBO at Hawthorne CA is listed as currently charging $4.82/gallon at AirNav: KHHR - Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal Airport

 

[mblakele]

If it's really possible to make jet fuel from atmospheric carbon dioxide for $3.79/gallon, why isn't that happening right now?

From the article: "Carbon Engineering hopes to build a small facility that can produce 200 barrels of fuel per day by 2021, and then a commercial plant that can produce 2,000 barrels per day".

That projected $4-ish/gal price would be at scale, I expect, while smaller-scale production will cost much more per liter. Processes that work well in the lab or on a small scale are often difficult to scale up. Sometimes they fail to scale.

I hope this one works, and earlier than expected. But by way of comparison, in 2012 the USA used close to 1.4M barrels of jet fuel every day.

SpaceX is working on something similar: maybe they'll get there faster.

Elon Musk on Twitter

 

[McRat]

Algae makes far more economic sense. But if you hand folk money to make pigs dance, that's entertaining too.
Algae consumes CO2 at an amazing rate, and makes REAL jet fuel. Not "low-carbon" fuel.

 

[Hyper Sonic]

"SpaceX is already developing high efficiency CO2 capture with H2O to form liquid CH4 (methane) & O2. Critical for propellant production at Mars Base Alpha."

Does Earth have enough CO2 in the air to make this worthwhile on Earth, or just on Earth's neighboring planets?

Mar's atmosphere is about 95% CO2 and 1/100th the thickness of Earth's.
Earth's atmosphere is about 0.04% C02
Venus's atmosphere is about 95% CO2 and 100 times the thickness of Earth's.

An interesting link on Algae
This Algae Eats CO2 From The Atmosphere | HuffPost

 

[iPlug]

Seems we are still years from directly buying carbon neutral jet fuel for our flights or the same for offsets.

What are folks here doing as a means to mitigate their carbon footprint impact when flying? Just bought tickets to Kauai for the family so feeling some guilt.

 

[mblakele]

Seems we are still years from directly buying carbon neutral jet fuel for our flights or the same for offsets.

What are folks here doing as a means to mitigate their carbon footprint impact when flying? Just bought tickets to Kauai for the family so feeling some guilt.

There's this 2018 paper about choosing carbon offsets:

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/papers/carbon-offsets.pdf​

The authors recommend projects that line up with UN Sustainable Development Goals, on the grounds that emissions are ultimately a social cost. They like projects that reduce methane output in developing countries.

 

[ladysbff]

Seems we are still years from directly buying carbon neutral jet fuel for our flights or the same for offsets.

What are folks here doing as a means to mitigate their carbon footprint impact when flying? Just bought tickets to Kauai for the family so feeling some guilt.

Like the above poster... you can calculate the carbon impact of your trip and donate the equivalent funds to invest in projects to offset them:
Calculate and Compensate for your Emissions! – myclimate

I was going to start buying carbon offsets every time I fly as a rule to myself, but then decided instead to start donating/subscribing to scientific journals, newspapers, and online magazines that support climate research. This has helped me speak more intelligently when making the case for the importance of the adoption of EVs and living a more carbon neutral lifestyle. In particular I started subscribing to Nature: Environmental sciences - Latest research and news | Nature

re: feeling guilt, I stopped feeling bad about not buying the carbon offsets myself. I'm already 100% renewable powered at work, solar at home, organic/vegan, zero waste/low plastic consumption, thrifter, Tesla driver... so... no guilt over here