Iceland is getting a little bitt cleaner

[IceStiller]

I like this a lot. Best idea ever.
http://thinkgeoenergy.com/archives/1334
The plant is in the final design stage now, but the small scale testing system is producing about 2L a day last time i heard.
Now they are looking into using CO2 emissions from the aluminum plant close by also.

Think about it this way.
A country emits 100 (things)of CO2 from industry and 100 (things) of CO2 privately, cars, homes etc.
Lets say that you could use 25% of industry CO2 to make methanol for cars. you have cut the total CO2 emitions by 25%.
Personally i think if you try reusing CO2 the total effect is grater that biological possibility, biodisel and ethanol, that will end up costing more energy in the long run than reusing energy already in use or not possible to get rid of like CO2 from a geothermal power plant..

What do you guys think

[plonker]

I like it!! Personally I think Biodesiel is the go, we use it in Oz at the moment..

[azeo]

Good idea in principle, but methanol has a few more 'gotchas' than ethanol in it's use, apart from the fact it does make sense to burn undrinkable alcohol! - far more poisonous, more corrosive, and requires a richer mixture. This idea seems of merit, although a bit proprietry

http://www.lanzatech.co.nz/

[FarSideStill]

There isn't enough farmland around to run everything on biodiesel and feed everyone...

[kiwistiller]

There isn't enough farmland around to run everything on biodiesel and feed everyone...

Indeed. What's exciting is making fuel from waste or biproducts. that plant in iceland sounds great. There is a cool project going through testing around my neck of the woods at the moment.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3 ... o-make-oil
They're growing algae in an oxidation pond for wastewater, and then putting it through intense pressure and heat to turn it into oil (just like mother nature does). It's just a demo project for the technology, but I love the idea of using wastewater to do it.

[MuleKicker]

biodiesel is ok, if your in the warm climates, and its clean. I work on diesels, and let me tell ya, bio diesel when it gets cold can fuck up a good diesel engine quick. the problem is all the emmision mandates and tighter tolerances on these new engines. a little biodiesel and some cold, the stuff turns into jelly, you have a pissed off customer and a dead truck. (in a nut shell)

[azeo]

It will probably be a raft of solutions that help solve our energy and transport fuel problems, and instead of exploiting resources to their limit, we will have to "mine" them sustainably, and look for ways to make use of by-products along the way, whether it's material, or energy efficiencies.

Certainly there's no way we can rely just on farmland, but there's so much wastage out there - we could do a lot better. So much waste that's a result of normal life, "waste" that has such a huge potential for fertilising fuel crops, algae etc that turn a problem into a resource, or being re-processed usefully.

There's the "unfarmable" land too that could be utilised, roadsides, arid areas, effluent treatment areas from farms and industry, town and city sewage treatment. But that will be a cost also, and someone's unused land, is someone elses unspolit environment, or bio-diversity resource, or climate stabiliser...

It's true though, moving to bio-fuels has it's own set of problems and issues that have to be solved to bring them into everyday use, common rail diesel pumps and injectors particulary being sensitive to contamination, and while it's ok to run things in test and trial mode it's another story to have the infrastrucure and vehicles in place. Brazil seems a good example though of what's possible, although maybe others with more knowledge would be aware of any issues.

Eventually though, surely, we'll have to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels globally, as effort of extraction, lack of supply, emissions, economic dependence etc become an ever-increasing cost to bear...

recently been tuning up an old motorbike to run on alky, "Tuning for Speed" in one hand, jet drills in the other, nothing like the smell of alky and castor oil!