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Producing fuels from 1,500 degrees of solar heat: world’s first plant opens in Germany
(www.thechemicalengineer.com)
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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I‘m not particularly hyped about synthetic fuels, but the application to low-carbon cement seems important to me, if this is possible at the scale required
There are plenty of applications where batteries simply won't be sufficient, so synthetic fuels do have a place. Just not in land based transport.
I’d really be interested to see a comparison between the costs of electrifying the rail network vs using synthetic diesel for freight throughout the US.
Unlike cars or semi trucks, diesel-electric locomotives are extremely efficient. On the other hand, electrifying the many thousands of miles of track that run through large, unpopulated areas of the US seems like a monumental challenge that would yield far fewer benefits over electrifying cars.
trains are actually one of the examples where you can get away with lower energy dense fuels, like methanol, ammonia or even compressed hydrogen. sure the range will go down, but for many connections this will not matter that much because it will still be possible to go 1000km with one tank if needed.