Swiss scientists have developed a "solar reactor" that converts water and carbon dioxide into kerosene

Representatives of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) showed a wide the public a conceptual system that is capable of producing fuel literally from air, water and sun rays.

Thus, the assembled device captures carbon dioxide from the ambient air and water and, through the use of sunlight, creates the so-called carbon-neutral fuel.

A solar-fueled reactor uses heat from concentrated sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into synthesis gas. ETH, Zurich

New development and its prospects

Despite all the efforts to switch to the so-called "green energy sources", the whole world is still actively fossil fuels are used, burning which every day is simply emitted a huge amount of greenhouse gases into atmosphere.

This problem can be quickly resolved by using synthetic fuels, which are very similar to fossil fuels in many ways.

At the same time, the synthetic version is, in fact, a renewable resource that can quickly and completely replace traditional fuel without any rebuilding of the existing infrastructure.

So, while working on this problem, scientists from ETH Zurich managed to successfully create and even test an installation that successfully synthesized fuel from the literal sense of the air.

So the assembled installation was made of three modules:

1. Gas capture module.
2. Solar converter.
3. Converting syngas to liquid fuels.

So, initially, the installation captures air, and the first module absorbs the carbon dioxide and water contained in it.

The next module uses solar energy, which starts a chemical process, during which a gaseous mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide is synthesized. So, in fact, only gas can be used by itself, but in the third module it is converted into kerosene or methanol.

In order to demonstrate the principle of operation, scientists assembled a 5 kW installation on the roof of the institute. And this assembly, working 7 hours a day with periodic sunlight, was able to generate up to 32 ml of methanol daily.

Of course, this is a very small amount of fuel, but the task was to demonstrate the efficiency of the installation in principle. And if necessary, the system can easily be scaled up to the required volumes.

So, according to theoretical calculations, if you create a plant where 10 concentrator fields and the capacity each of them will be equal to 100 MW of solar energy, then such an installation will be able to create about 95,000 liters of kerosene in a day.

And in order to fully provide the entire world aviation with such generated fuel, it will be necessary to create a mega-plant with a concentrator area of ​​only 45,000 square kilometers. But the cost of the synthetic fuel produced in this way will be more expensive compared to the classic fossil fuel.

Therefore, in the case of the development of this project, of course, additional subsidies and third-party support from governments will be required.

Well, we will follow the development of the project for the production of synthetic fuel. Well, if you liked the material, then rate it and do not forget to subscribe to the channel. Thank you for your attention!

A source: ETH Zurich.