Audi have successfully made diesel fuel from carbon dioxide and water

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Audi have successfully made diesel fuel from carbon dioxide and water

Carbon-neutral diesel is now a reality.

German car manufacturer Audi has reportedly invented a carbon-neutral diesel fuel, made solely from water, carbon dioxide and renewable energy sources. And the crystal clear 'e-diesel' is already being used to power the Audi A8 owned by the country

[Skiver Veteran]

This sounds pretty interesting - I suspect this won't be held just to Audi's if it does become mainstream, they could easily sell the design off to other engine manufacturers to help pay for the RD and growth.

 

I don't think relying upon everyone to suddenly buy an Audi will do it.

[Ilys]

Wait, a compound made from CO and H₂? Isn't that just formaldehyde? Does anyone here know the molecular formula for this "Blue Crude"?

[GotBored]

This sounds pretty interesting - I suspect this won't be held just to Audi's if it does become mainstream, they could easily sell the design off to other engine manufacturers to help pay for the RD and growth.

 

I don't think relying upon everyone to suddenly buy an Audi will do it.

 

With this technology they will probably want to give away the designs to engine manufacturers to utilize this fuel so they could sell the fuel instead, if they could create plants that create a lot more than 160 litres of it per day and its more efficient to create than going the old crude oil way than audi won't need to make cars anymore.

[domboy]

This sounds pretty interesting - I suspect this won't be held just to Audi's if it does become mainstream, they could easily sell the design off to other engine manufacturers to help pay for the RD and growth.

 

I don't think relying upon everyone to suddenly buy an Audi will do it.

 

With this technology they will probably want to give away the designs to engine manufacturers to utilize this fuel so they could sell the fuel instead, if they could create plants that create a lot more than 160 litres of it per day and its more efficient to create than going the old crude oil way than audi won't need to make cars anymore.

 

 

Um, unless I missed something, they didn't say anything about the Audi A8 being specially modified, and the article mention how it can be mixed with regular diesel as well. So my take is that this synthetic diesel doesn't require a special engine, and anyone with a diesel vehicle could run this fuel, Audi or otherwise. I doubt Audi want's to become just a fuel supplier, more likely this is a way to make Audi's (and VW's) TDI models a showcase for alternative energy. And it sounds pretty cool.

[Astra.Xtreme]

I'm glad to see more companies working on fuels like this.  Battery tech isn't going to be a worthy energy source anytime soon, and this and hydrogen have massively more potential.  Replace the wind inverter with a nuke plant and we'll be in business.

[Skiver Veteran]

Um, unless I missed something, they didn't say anything about the Audi A8 being specially modified, and the article mention how it can be mixed with regular diesel as well. So my take is that this synthetic diesel doesn't require a special engine, and anyone with a diesel vehicle could run this fuel, Audi or otherwise. I doubt Audi want's to become just a fuel supplier, more likely this is a way to make Audi's (and VW's) TDI models a showcase for alternative energy. And it sounds pretty cool.

 

Nope you didn't I'm making assumptions that a regular diesel engines would need modifying. If they can run out of the box now, Audi just basically created the ability to write their own cheques.

[exotoxic]

Hopefully they have good security, there is going to be some very rich and powerful people wanting to put a stop to this.

[firey]

And like every other attempt at cutting out the big oil companies/reducing their need it will go nowhere.  Shell, Exxon, etc will throw their money around and turn this into nothing more than a "what every happend to.."

[FunkyMike]

And like every other attempt at cutting out the big oil companies/reducing their need it will go nowhere.  Shell, Exxon, etc will throw their money around and turn this into nothing more than a "what every happend to.."

 

Yeah the process itself seems like too much of an investment.

 

Easier big oil to just keep on diluting our petrodiesel with the biograde crap. 

[Unobscured Vision]

Looks okay on paper ... let's break it down (no pun intended):

 

 

-Part of the process is removing CO2 from the air, returning Oxygen because it's not needed for the catalyst. + points for Oxygen being the only emissive so far. Everyone likes Oxygen!

 

-Needs Hydrogen, so it takes in Water. Expels the excess Oxygen. My only issue with this is whether it can use Salt Water, which would be ideal since Fresh Water is rather hard to come by (in comparison). + 1/2 points if it can use Salt Water (since it means there are additional emissions but less impact), - points if it can not (since Fresh Water supplies are limited and strained).

 

-It's still an internal combustion engine, by definition. Aren't we supposed to be moving away from those? - points for clinging on to old technology. Yes, we are supposed to be moving away from that.

 

-It's a far more efficient  fuel for the internal combustion engine -- people will likely not have to upgrade, saving money. + 1/2 point. Saving money is a good thing ... usually.

 

So .. results are that it's marginal to slightly in the negative, points-wise. This indicates that it's not really a step up unless it uses Salt Water in the process. In fact, if it uses Fresh Water, it likely will have severe negative impact if it goes into widespread manufacturing and use.

 

So, no. Probably not a good idea. Which means they will likely go into full production.

[rfirth]

Looks okay on paper ... let's break it down (no pun intended):

 

 

-Part of the process is removing CO2 from the air, returning Oxygen because it's not needed for the catalyst. + points for Oxygen being the only emissive so far. Everyone likes Oxygen!

 

-Needs Hydrogen, so it takes in Water. Expels the excess Oxygen. My only issue with this is whether it can use Salt Water, which would be ideal since Fresh Water is rather hard to come by (in comparison). + 1/2 points if it can use Salt Water (since it means there are additional emissions but less impact), - points if it can not (since Fresh Water supplies are limited and strained).

 

-It's still an internal combustion engine, by definition. Aren't we supposed to be moving away from those? - points for clinging on to old technology. Yes, we are supposed to be moving away from that.

 

-It's a far more efficient  fuel for the internal combustion engine -- people will likely not have to upgrade, saving money. + 1/2 point. Saving money is a good thing ... usually.

 

So .. results are that it's marginal to slightly in the negative, points-wise. This indicates that it's not really a step up unless it uses Salt Water in the process. In fact, if it uses Fresh Water, it likely will have severe negative impact if it goes into widespread manufacturing and use.

 

So, no. Probably not a good idea. Which means they will likely go into full production.

 

Yes, it can use salt water. Actually, salt water would even be preferred. You need an electrolyte in the water to make electrolysis work. Salt water would be perfect.

 

Clinging to an old technology is a + because that means it will be easier to implement. Nobody will convert if you have to completely replace everything. It's too big of an investment to throw away all those old internal combustion engines.

 

And there is no problem with it being an internal combustion engine. Yes, combustion will produce CO2 that will pollute the atmosphere. But the process that produces the fuel removes CO2. So it's a closed cycle that shouldn't add any additional CO2 to the atmosphere.

[Unobscured Vision]

Excellent. I shall revise my post to reflect that information. That will put it into positive territory.

 

[EDIT] As I am unable to edit my earlier post, I'll do that here.

 

- The Salt Water versus Fresh Water question is answered. It prefers Salt Water; in fact the process almost requires it. + 1 point because no land-based creature can drink seawater.

- The issue with it being an internal combustion engine. Any CO2 emissions eventually end up back into the fuel, making it technically carbon-neutral, as well as having 70% less emissions than normal Diesel fuel to begin with. +1 point, because it IS a step forward. 70% better is still 70% better.

 

We're +4 points into the green with this technology. Earlier findings revised, it's a good one.

[The Evil Overlord]

I'm interested in the impact on the environment, and so on, when producing this fuel

The current ecosystem is far from perfect, for sure, but how much power/resources are being consumed vs the amount of fuel produced etc???

[Torolol]

How many % that energy produced from step-4 (assuming the resulting fuel are to be used for electricity),

in comparison with required energy intakes on step-1?

[JustGeorge]

With this technology they will probably want to give away the designs to engine manufacturers to utilize this fuel so they could sell the fuel instead, if they could create plants that create a lot more than 160 litres of it per day and its more efficient to create than going the old crude oil way than audi won't need to make cars anymore.

The article mentions it can be mixed with current diesel fuel. I guess they wouldn't have to design new engines for it, unless they can be tuned to run better with the new formula.

 

Once it's been refined, the resulting e-diesel can be mixed in with our current diesel fuel, or used on its own to power cars in a more sustainable way.