In the current race for an oil alternative, focus has moved from making a renewable source to moving to a new source altogether. Audi however, has made a diesel alternative out of water and carbon-dioxide.
So let’s step back a little. Our current oil source is gathered from millions of years of decomposition of animal and dinosaur fossils. This has been a pretty reliable source, but with our boom of using this oil for pretty much our sole source of energy; levels are dwindling. We then moved onto solar powered cars, a good idea in principle; yet not practical due to the price and vulnerability of the solar panels. We’ve seen sources from Hyundai of hydrogen powered cars, again a good idea, but really heavy. Today, we have Electric Vehicles; we like EV’s here at eTeknix, all of the power all the way through the ‘rev’ range.
Audi has made some EV’s, but secretly deep down they have been sourcing a way to produce a renewable source of fuel for current production cars.
Let’s take a look through their current three step method of producing this “e-Diesel”.
Step one: It begins with air collection, gathering carbon dioxide from the air from a partner “Climeworks”. This is then fed through to an Audi conversion reactor and creates carbon monoxide from that process.
Step two: During that process, they are chemically breaking down water into its base elements; water and hydrogen. The hydrogen is then added to the carbon monoxide at high temperatures and under immense pressure; this creates a long-chain hydrocarbon that results in “blue crude”.
Step three: The hydrogen is then added to the carbon monoxide at high temperatures and under immense pressure; this creates a long-chain hydrocarbon that results in “blue crude”. This is then sent off for refinement.
Once refined, the e-Diesel can be used on its own or added to our current diesel fuel stock to bulk it out. This will be produced in approximately 160 litres a day for the foreseeable future.
Audi has given the operations to a German based company, Sunfire. they state that the fuel has an overall efficiency of 70% compared to naturally sourced diesel. Audi and Sunfire are in talks to build a large production plant to boost the output levels; in hope that this will compete with electricity. They plan to sell it within the 1EURO – 1.50EURO per litre.
https://youtu.be/55Edq_Irstk
Sounds like an LFTR would be good in this situation, power generation as well as heat, wouldn’t have to depend on incoming electricity, as they would output more than needed I would imagine, more profits for them in the end.