The energy ratio and cost being terrible doesn't matter for some PR usecases.
Imagine being able to sell Formula 1 this fuel so the whole industry can claim to be green and try and try to re-attract young crowds who are turned away by un-greenness?
The fuel could cost 100x as much, and it still wouldn't be a big issue.
There are other ways besides biology that hydrocarbons can be
produced. Pure water placed between diamond anvils at high temperature and enormous pressure will spontaneously produce hydrocarbons. Titan's atmosphere is mostly hydrocarbons that didn't come from living things.
They state "It costs more than a barrel of oil right now, but in places with a price on carbon of $200 a ton, like what’s enabled through California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, we’re competitive". Today, the carbon price in the European cap-and-trade scheme is $81 per ton, and in California it's $29 per ton. So unless they've greatly improved efficiency, they don't have a profitable market.
The EU price is also only that high since about a year ago, two years ago it was about $23 per ton. Even if they were profitable at about $80 per ton, there was little time to scale up production.
$200/ton is 20c/litre (assume specific gravity of 0.75, and fuel being 75% carbon by mass).
Here in Ireland, tax on petrol is around €1/litre (VAT + excise duty + "carbon tax", but it all goes to the same place). A 20c extra subsidy would not quite be noise, but it's less than the price fluctuates from quarter to quarter anyway.
jorge-d|3 years ago
Also, technically, all hydrocarbons are made from Carbon sucked from the air.
londons_explore|3 years ago
Imagine being able to sell Formula 1 this fuel so the whole industry can claim to be green and try and try to re-attract young crowds who are turned away by un-greenness?
The fuel could cost 100x as much, and it still wouldn't be a big issue.
narrator|3 years ago
"Diamond dissolution and the production of methane and other carbon-bearing species in hydrothermal diamond-anvil cells" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00167...
edhelas|3 years ago
wongarsu|3 years ago
The EU price is also only that high since about a year ago, two years ago it was about $23 per ton. Even if they were profitable at about $80 per ton, there was little time to scale up production.
dmurray|3 years ago
Here in Ireland, tax on petrol is around €1/litre (VAT + excise duty + "carbon tax", but it all goes to the same place). A 20c extra subsidy would not quite be noise, but it's less than the price fluctuates from quarter to quarter anyway.
phpisthebest|3 years ago
That is not competitive, that is using government moopoly on violence to artificially raise the price of alternative product...
Competition would be done with out government force
alex_duf|3 years ago