New Invention Turns Water Into Fuel

A new invention from the German clean tech company Sunfire GmbH turns water into fuel.

The company unveiled a rig to showcase its so-called "Power-To-Liquid" technology, converting water and carbon dioxide into synthetic petrol, diesel, and kerosene. "The rig, at this stage, is for demonstration and feasibility purposes," Asian News International reported.

Sunfire CTO Christian von Olshausen explained the significance of the findings.

"This rig enables us to prove technical feasibility on an industrial scale," he said, CNET recently reported.

But there are still barriers to this fuel becoming widespread.

"It is now a matter of regulatory factors falling into place in a way which gives investors a sufficient level of planning reliability. Once that has occurred it will be possible to commence the step-by-step substitution of fossil fuels. If we want to achieve fuel autonomy in the long term, we need to get started today," he said.

"Sunfire's process works in part by creating steam via electricity from wind, solar, or other renewable sources, and removing the oxygen to produce hydrogen. Carbon dioxide is then pulled from the atmosphere, and used with the hydrogen in the Fischer-Tropsch process," Slash Gear reported.

According to the federal Energy Department, the Fischer-Tropsh process is a group of chemical reactions that "convert a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide—derived from coal, methane or biomass—to liquid fuels."

In this invention, the Fischer-Tropsh process is "combined with solid oxide electrolyser cells (SOECs). The SOECs are used to convert electricity -- supplied by renewable sources such as wind and solar -- to steam. Oxygen is removed from this steam to produce hydrogen," according to CNET.