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298 points Teever | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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kevinmershon ◴[] No.45032976[source]
> This is a similar reaction to photosynthesis in plants, which produces glucose instead of rocket fuel.

This is silly, but also begs the sillier question why we aren't bioengineering plants to produce rocket fuel

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andrewflnr ◴[] No.45033082[source]
Why aren't we engineering plants to produce automotive fuel? We ought to at least be able to do diesel.
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PaulHoule ◴[] No.45034388[source]
See https://www.aircela.com/ and many other e-fuel startups, that one makes a very pretty image of a "personal fuel synthesizer" which makes about a gallon of gas a day which is about what my wife and I use.
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two_handfuls ◴[] No.45035711[source]
Cool! They have the numbers, too. Their system needs electricity for electrolysis, 75kWh per gallon of fuel. Compare to 0.24-0.87 kWh/mi for electric cars.
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1. PaulHoule ◴[] No.45040089[source]
For a car that gets 30mpg that is 2.5 kWh/mi which is 3x worse than the the least efficient electric car, 10x worse than the best.

Still people will want to keep classic cars running in the future and there will be some market, enthusiasts will be willing to pay upwards of $8/gallon. Methanol-to-gasoline fuel is very high octane, around 96, which should keep old engines happy.

The most significant market, I think, for e-fuels are large vehicles such as construction trucks and farm tractors. California has absolutely terrible air quality not just in cities but in ag areas and it would be ideal to synthesize

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_ether

which burns without any soot because it has no C-C bonds.