A company in Canada claims they can capture ‘fuel’ from the air.
This company is hoping that those watching don’t understand the First Law of Thermodynamics. Carbon dioxide is NOT energy. Taking CO2 and converting it into hydrocarbon fuel USES energy. Thanks to inefficiencies in ALL chemical reactions (First Law of Thermodynamics) it takes more energy to create the fuel than the fuel itself contains.
I thought it was a joke, it was so stupid. I thought — it’s junk science, junk commerce, nothing makes sense about it. But look how pretty it is.
Hydrocarbon fuels are large organic molecules that are held together by chemical bonds. In some cases, there are thousands of these bonds in a single molecule. The carbon atoms are attached to hydrogen, as well as to other carbon atoms, forming long chains of carbons. During the combustion process, those bonds are broken, and the carbon atoms are connected to oxygen atoms instead.
These carbon dioxide molecules contain far fewer bonds than the larger molecules, so the excess energy is harvested. Basic physics.
In order to put those large molecules back together, the CO2 molecules have to be torn apart, energy has to be harvested from somewhere and added back to the process, so the hydrocarbons can be reassembled. Where this energy comes from is the part that makes this process BS. It is like mounting a wind generator on the nose of an airplane, and using the electricity generated to propel the aircraft.
Do you doubt that Maxine Waters and Justin Trudeau are reading over the brochures for these abominable contraptions, wondering how many thousands to order at taxpayer expense?