Water + Sun = biofuel as a laboratory in California chases dream

LOS ANGELES: it sounds like magic, Schiffler fiction, a California dream. Serious scientists are hard at work on a new Alchemy: brewery fuel for cars - synthetic gasoline - from little more than water and sunshine.
Imitating the manner to convert plants sunlight and carbon dioxide in the air into energy and oxygen, is the Joint Centre for artificial photosynthesis at the California Institute of technology in a race to nature and the slow warming of trump. Nate Lewis, Caltech Professor and solar energy research star, has a plan, fuel remake, as we know it.

"If we get to do this, we would make it," Lewis said in an interview last month.
The effort is U.S. Energy Department funds with $122 million, and combines the talents of 120 scientists at Caltech; Stanford University; the University of California Berkeley, Irvine and San Diego campuses; and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Electric motors, vehicles, the self and other disorder of the global automobile industry, which dates back to the 19th century is rented by the hour, cars.
A few years ago seemed also fantastic all-electric cars. Tesla Motors Inc., which only battery-powered vehicles, now has a higher market value than some labour-intensive car manufacturers, such as Suzuki Motor Corp. and Fiat SpA.

Two jumps
Lewis has a two-stage plan to revolutionize fuel. Really, it is two jumps.

Initially, the coalition aims at a system to make large quantities of hydrogen as a fuel with inexpensive solar-panel-like devices. Liquid or gaseous hydrogen, which can drive up super clean fuel cell cars, is required for chemical plants and refineries.
Then comes the second jump: assign the same research a system that can mix the hydrogen fuel with carbon dioxide from the air, as a plant for liquid fuels, heavy makes cars, trucks, boats or aircraft.

Synthetic, CO2 free gasoline is not easy, quick or cheap.
Research laboratories are racing around the world to find renewable alternatives to oil. Some are private enterprises; others are State-funded. While attempting some fuel from algae, corn or other crops, Lewis, argued that such solutions require to much water or soil, which are needed for food production.

Innovation racing
Research projects such as JCAP luxury without to meet short-term receivables to investors have, said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst based in Houston for Raymond James & Associates Inc.

"Companies, which ought to be commercially within the next three years on private capital, also venture capital, in most cases", said Molchanov, who follows biofuel company. "If we what private developer of bio-fuels to consider now, none of them have a commercialization roadmap that goes by 2025."
Startups like KiOR Inc., Solazyme Inc., Ceres Inc., Gevo Inc. and Amyris Inc. have an advantage over JCAP, because they already are commercialization of biofuel alternatives to oil and ethanol from grain.

What has JCAP is the Department of energy, the apply as an energy innovation hub, one of three Manhattan project-like efforts. Others are to make to the improvement of nuclear power plants and building more energy-efficient. Lewis can with the Government financing, methodically searching for a breakthrough.
Wright brothers

"The first five years of JCAP, our goal is to show that this can happen He said the parts, components, to an artificial photosynthetic system rebuild to make". This prototype is "not commercializable aircraft was the Wright brothers in the same way a 747." We have to show to the people first, is there a there. "
About five years later, with "better, faster, cheaper" nuclear fuel may license its system technology, JCAP oil and energy companies, said Lewis.

The program is to help in talks with potential partners from the industry, to expand its analysis of the "Earth abundant" materials needed promising for their solar fuel distillery. Lewis went on certain companies to identify. JCAP technicians are looking for the perfect recipe for low-cost, light-absorbing materials and hydrogen generating hundreds of combinations of metal salts and alloys needed for catalysts, tested.
Increasing the urgency of a low-carbon energy sources was intensified as extreme weather adds to concerns that heat-trapping gases in the Earth's atmosphere make less hospitable planet.

President Barack Obama, whose managing JCAP financed, signaled in June that US measures to curb CO2 emissions of new steps from such pollution from power plants, will intensify the largest source of CO2 emissions according to the US Environmental Protection Agency pare.
Transport fuels

Secondly, the use of oil is-based fuel in the transport sector. Engines in cars, trucks, planes and ships produced 28 percent the 6.7 million tons of trailing by the United States in 2011, according to the EPA, issued, only electricity production by 33 percent. Obama put a plan 2011 double vehicle fuel economy up to the year 2025 cut carbon pollution.
Automakers are strengthening, with small, high-output engines vehicle efficiency Actuator supplied by batteries; and even hydrogen fuel cells.

A big hurdle for vehicles with fuel cells, such as those developed by Toyota Motor Corp. and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, is the lack of a clean source of hydrogen as a fuel. The first part of the Lewis plan it should be more plentiful and produce so much cleaner than is traditionally the case.
2020 JCAP technology for chemical plants and refineries, needed hydrogen could deliver, said William Royea, JCAP Deputy Director for strategy. Both use large amounts of gas - and the main source of industrial emit large amounts of CO2, for obtaining hydrogen from natural gas.

"If produced from this process is burnt gasoline-like fuel, back is that originally used the same CO2," said Lewis. "It is completely CO2-neutral."
Copyright 2013 Bloomberg

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