Intriguing New Machine Turns Air Into Gasoline You Can Put Straight Into Your Car
For many years, engineers have suggested sucking up the excess carbon dioxide in our planet’s atmosphere to battle climate change, a moonshot idea that has as many supporters as it does skeptics. A value proposition that could make the idea far more grounded: what if the captured carbon dioxide could be converted into a different form of energy, treating the atmosphere like a giant power storage system? Now, a New York City-based startup, called Aircela, has come up with an intriguing contraption that can trap carbon dioxide from regular air and turn it into usable gasoline. It’s a clever, three-step process that is firmly rooted in science. First, the carbon dioxide is separated out from the air through a process known as direct air capture, roughly the same that climate change-fighting technology scientists are studying in their efforts to sequester greenhouse gas emissions, albeit on a much smaller scale. Through splitting water via electrolysis, the machine simultaneously produces hydrogen, which is then mixed with the captured carbon dioxide to synthesize methanol. Finally, the methanol is …
