London: A small British company has developed a way to create petrol from air and water, technology it hopes may one day contribute to large-scale production of green fuels. Engineers at Air Fuel Synthesis (AFS) in Teeside, northern England, say they have produced 5 litres of synthetic petrol over a period of three months.

The technique involves extracting carbon dioxide from air and hydrogen from water, and combining them in a reactor with a catalyst to make methanol. The methanol is then converted into petrol. By using renewable energy to power the process, it is possible to create carbon-neutral fuel that can be used in an identical way to standard petrol, scientists behind the technology say.


Here is the basic process:

1. Air and sodium hydroxide are passed through an electrolyzer. This separates out the carbon dioxide.

2. A similar process is used to separate the hydrogen and oxygen that makes up water.

3. The carbon dioxide and hydrogen are combined to make methanol.

4. That methanol is refined to make petrol (fuel).

Like a lot of inventions, there are problems. At the present time, it takes a large amount of electricity to create this petrol. That means it would be too expensive to produce at this point in time.


http://content.ibnlive.in.com/article/20-Oct-2012world/british-engineers-create-petrol-from-air-and-water-301309-2.html

http://writingshares.com/cnn-technology-news-video-darlington-england-british-firm-air-fuel-synthesis-says-it-can-create-fuel-from-air-and-water-contains-interviews-with-peter-harrison-and-lee-cronin/