Frequently here at DU I speak of my ideal fluid fuel, the easily liquifiable gas DME (dimethyl ether), that can in theory be made from carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
While the interest in this (superior) technology in the US is weak, it is of serious interest in Asia, primarily Japan and China, where pilot plants and industrial scale plants are either opertating or under construction.
Unfortunately, the synthetic starting material for the manufacturing of DME is currently
coal (and/or natural gas) both of which are environmentally unacceptable, albeit widely used, fuels. Still, I think this paper lays out the territory very well, and, for what it's worth link it here:
http://www.ieiglobal.org/ESDVol8No3/DMEchina.pdfIn the chemistry section, note the presence of the water shift reaction, which is essentially the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to give carbon monoxide and water. Note also that the same catalyst that drives the formation of carbon monoxide also drives the formation of DME.
Thus, in theory, if hydrogen could be produced from either nuclear or renewable means, and carbon dioxide could be removed from the air, (these are big ifs) we could have a very clean fluid fuel that would address all of our transportation, home heating and peak load electricity needs. (DME runs diesel engines.) (China is building nuclear power plants specifically designed to produce hydrogen.)
I thought this may be of some interest to readers here.
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