This document describes two techniques for extracting gasoline from unconventional sources - seawater and fresh water/air. The US Navy has developed a technique to produce synthetic fuel by combining seawater and nuclear power in a chemical reactor originally developed in 1925. This allows Navy ships and aircraft to be independent of fuel tankers. A second technique uses fresh water and air as inputs to also produce synthetic gasoline, making fuel production possible anywhere. The document discusses both techniques in detail and their potential impacts and applications.

1. 1
How
to
extract
gasoline
from
water
(&
air)
May
1,
2016
Fabio
Boschetti,
PhD
student
Max-­‐Plank-­‐Institute
for
Biogeochemistry
Department
of
Biogeochemical
System
Hans-­‐Knöll-­‐Strasse
10
07745
Jena,
Germany
Room:
A3.025
Phone:
0049
3641-­‐57-­‐6361
E-­‐mail:
fabosk@bgc-­‐jena.mpg.de
Abstract
Fossil
fuels
are
deeply
rooted
in
our
technological
civilization,
they
are
however
a
major
cause
for
both
climate
change
and
many
international
conflicts
around
the
world.
While
many
alternatives
are
available,
technical
problems
are
limiting
their
diffusion.
In
recent
years,
some
country
developed
a
technique
to
produce
synthetic
fuels
using
nothing
but
water
and
air.
This
technique
shows
promises
to
significantly
reduce
the
greenhouse
effect
without
significantly
altering
the
existing
economic
infrastructure
and
make
potentially
any
country
in
the
world
independent
from
the
energy
point
of
view,
with
likely
improving
of
global
wellbeing
and
reduction
of
international
conflicts.
Contents:
Introduction
p.
2
Gasoline
from
seawater
p.
2
Gasoline
from
fresh
water
and
air
p.
11
Potential
customers
and
Further
applications
p.
16
Conclusions
p.
17
References
p.
18

2. 2
1.
Introduction
Our
civilization
is
based
on
fossil
fuels.
Fossil
fuels
are
used
to
produce
electricity,
warm
our
houses,
cook
our
food
and
propel
our
vehicles;
they
permeate
the
very
essence
of
human
lifestyle
in
the
modern
age.
This
centrality
makes
them
a
limiting
factor
for
economic
prosperity,
making
the
struggle
to
secure
fossil
fuel
supply
a
major
cause
for
conflicts.
In
addition,
and
most
importantly,
they
are
the
most
important
cause
of
climate
change.
This
means
that,
ironically,
the
very
base
of
our
civilization
can
cause
the
end
of
it.
For
what
said
before,
it
is
however
extremely
difficult
to
replace
fossil
fuels
without
re-­‐engineering
the
existing
economic
infrastructure.
Despite
many
promising
technologies
have
been
developed,
they
still
have
important
downsides.
In
the
case
of
the
renewable
energies,
especially
solar
and
wind,
the
problem
stands
in
their
dependence
on
weather.
Stating
the
problem
in
this
way,
the
ideal
solution
would
be
to
use
renewable
energies
to
produce
ecologic
fuels
that
can
be
used
by
any
device
originally
intended
for
fossil
fuels.
This
may
sound
like
science
fiction,
but
it
is
not.
In
the
last
years,
different
institutions
in
different
countries
succeeded
in
extracting
gasoline
from
water.
There
are
two
main
variants
of
this
technique:
the
first
one
focuses
on
seawater,
while
the
second
makes
use
of
fresh
water
and
air.
For
reasons
that
will
become
immediately
obvious,
the
two
variants
can
also
be
called
the
‘military’
and
‘civilian’
one
respectively.
2.
Gasoline
from
seawater
The
US
Navy
developed
this
method
few
years
ago.
Existence
of
this
technique
first
hit
the
news
in
September
2012,
with
the
first
results
apparently
from
the
year
2009.
So
far,
the
service
has
demonstrated
the
ability
of
the
synthetic
fuel
(syn-­‐gas)
extracted
from
seawater
to
power
a
2-­‐time
engine
by
successfully
flying
a
model
aircraft
(Fig.
1,
right)
and
is
now
working
on
up-­‐scaling
the
process.
Researchers
from
the
Naval
Research
Laboratory
expect
their
syn-­‐gas
to
eventually
cost
3-­‐6$
per
gallon
(1
gallon
=
3.78
liters),
and
so
to
be
economically
competitive.
The
technology
is
based
on
a
Fisher-­‐Tropf
reactor,
developed
in
1925
in
Germany
to
convert
coal
into
a
liquid
hydrocarbon.

3. 3
Figure
1:
the
chemical
reactor
(left)
and
an
aircraft
model
that
already
flew
using
the
synthetic
fuel
from
water
(right)
Figure
2:
scheme
illustrating
the
impact
of
the
synthetic
fuel
on
the
US
Navy
At
the
basis
of
the
whole
concept
lays
the
idea
of
using
the
abovementioned
chemical
reactor
to
combine
seawater
and
nuclear
power,
two
elements
that
are
aplenty
on
a
US
carrier,
in
order
to
produce
fuel
for
both
the
aircrafts
and
the
other
ships
of
the
battle
group,
allowing
the
fleet
to
get
rid
of
the
tanker
usually
accompanying
it
(Figure
2).
This
has
not
only
financial
benefits
due
to
the
elimination
of
the
maintenance
of
the
tanker;
it
also
eliminates
a
factor
of
risk.
Tankers
carrying
aviation
fuel
can
be
seen
in
fact
as
huge
floating
bombs;
in
case

4. 4
the
tanker
is
hit
during
the
refueling
operation,
which
requires
more
ships
to
be
very
close
to
each
other,
the
massive
resulting
explosion
is
likely
to
provoke
even
other
ships
to
sink.
The
service
has
been
focusing
on
seawater
because
CO2
is
140
times
more
concentrated
into
seawater
than
in
air.
More
precisely,
97-­‐98
percent
of
CO2
seawater
assumes
the
form
of
bicarbonate
(HCO3-­‐),
and
roughly
2
percent
as
carbonic
acid
(H2CO3).
Figure
3:
part
of
the
carbon
cycle
in
the
Ocean
2.1
Only
Hydrogen
and
Carbon
As
implied
by
it
own
name,
a
hydrocarbon
is
uniquely
composed
of
hydrogen
and
carbon.
Intuitively,
to
create
a
hydrocarbon,
one
must
collect
both
elements
separately,
and
then
combine
them
to
form
a
chain
of
carbon
atoms
surrounded
by
atoms
of
hydrogen.
Different
techniques
are
used
to
collect
the
two
basic
ingredients.
No
technical
detail
was
released
on
how
carbon
is
harvested,
but
it
is
claimed
that
the
process
can
recover
up
to
92
percent
of
CO2
in
a
certain
volume
of
seawater.
Hydrogen
is
harvested
using
a
normal
electrolysis
process
as
described
in
Eq.1,
Eq
1:
2Na+
+H2O
+
2e-­‐
-­‐>
2NaOH
+
2H2
Where
the
sodium
(Na+)
is
naturally
present
in
the
seawater
(Figure
4),
and
the
2
electrons
is
courtesy
of
the
nuclear
reactor
of
the
aircraft
carrier.
It
is
obvious
in
fact
that
this
technique
does
not
create
energy
from
nothing
but
just
transforms
it,
hence
requires
more
energy
than
the
one
stored
into
the
produced
fuel.
For
this
reason,
it
is
meaningful
only
when
a
non-­‐fossil
fuel
energy
source
is
used
to
power
it.

5. 5
The
produced
basic
solution
(2NaOH)
may
be
re-­‐combined
with
the
acidified
seawater
to
return
the
seawater
to
its
original
pH
with
no
additional
chemicals.
Figure
4:
Major
ion
composition
of
seawater
The
two
basic
components
are
then
turned
into
a
long
hydrocarbon
chain
in
a
two-­‐step
process.
In
the
first
step
uses
an
iron-­‐based
catalyst
to
convert
CO2
into
unsaturated
hydrocarbons
called
olefins,
(CnH2n).
Low-­‐grade
gaseous
olefins
are
then
olygomineralized
(aggregated)
into
a
liquid
containing
hydrocarbon
molecule
in
the
carbon
C9-­‐C16
range.
This
is
apparently
enough
for
fuelling
ships;
to
create
jet
fuel,
a
third
step
making
use
of
a
nickel
supported
catalyst
is
needed.
It
is
claimed
that
up
to
60
percent
of
CO2
can
be
converted
during
the
first
step,
with
a
decrease
of
unwanted
methane
production
from
97
percent
to
25
percent.
The
produced
methane
is
of
course
a
source
of
risk
on
a
military
ship,
while
being
in
addition
a
very
powerful
greenhouse
gas.
Capturing
it
and
burning
it
on
the
spot
to
produce
electricity
and
partially
powering
the
plant
may
be
the
best
course
of
action.
While
traditional
fossil
fuels
are
complex
mixtures
that
include
a
great
number
of
substances
other
than
hydrocarbons,
the
syn-­‐gas
literally
contains
only
hydrogen
and
carbon.
This
purity
translates
in
a
whole
host
of
positive
effects:
1. Higher
efficiency
2. Absence
of
Mercury,
with
obvious
effects
on
human
health
3. Absence
of
Sulphur,
resulting
in
a
reduction
of
emitted
particulate
matter
(PM).
According
to
Righi
et
al.
(2011),
a
Sulphur
reduction
from
4.5%
to
0.5%
of
ship
fuel
mass
would
turn
into
a
40-­‐60%
sulphate
aerosol
reduction
in
high
shipping
regions,
and
a
decrease
of
indirect
loading
aerosol
effect
by
a
factor
of
3-­‐4.
4. Virtual
absence
of
aromatic
content,
resulting
in
a
40-­‐95%
of
emitted
PM
for
a
jet
engine
(Figure
5)

6. 6
Figure
5:
Reduction
in
number
and
mass
of
particulate
emission
for
different
alternative
fuels
compared
to
a
traditional
avio
gasoline.
FAME
is
a
biofuel
based
on
animal
fat
waste,
while
F-­‐T
stands
for
Fischer-­‐Tropf,
used
in
this
study
(Lobo
et
al,
2011)
to
convert
coal.

7. 7
2.2
Fixing
the
carbon
cycle
The
Carbon
cycle
as
originally
intended
by
Mother
Nature
(Figure
6)
tends
to
be
stable
over
very
long
time
scales.
The
feature
that
keeps
the
whole
system
in
equilibrium
is
that
input
and
outputs
for
each
of
the
four
main
carbon
pools,
which
means
Atmosphere,
Hydrosphere,
Biosphere
and
Lithosphere,
are
characterized
by
processes
with
the
same
time
scale.
Figure
6:
natural
biogeochemical
cycle
for
carbon.

8. 8
Figure
7:
biogeochemical
carbon
cycle
for
carbon
after
being
perturbed
by
anthropogenic
activities.
As
the
rate
of
extraction
of
the
carbon
from
the
Lithosphere
is
much
faster
than
the
natural
burial
process,
the
carbon
content
of
the
Atmosphere
is
increased,
with
the
well-­‐known
effects
on
climate.
When
considering
the
human
effect
to
the
Carbon
cycle,
one
can
visualize
it
by
simply
adding
a
flux
of
Carbon
from
the
Lithosphere
to
the
Atmosphere
(Figure
7),
symbolizing
extraction
and
combustion
of
fossil
fuels.
The
main
problem
with
this
effect
is
not
the
combustion
in
itself,
but
that
the
extraction
rate
of
carbon
from
the
Lithosphere
(in
form
of
oil,
coal
and
natural
gas)
is
immensely
faster
than
the
deposition
rate
from
the
Biosphere
due
to
burial
processes.
This
causes
the
carbon
distribution
to
be
altered,
notably
by
an
increase
of
CO2
in
the
Atmosphere,
with
the
well
know
effect
on
climate.
This
problem
can
however
be
fixed
if
the
carbon
is
extracted
by
a
pool
characterized
by
fast
exchange
rates
like
the
Hydrosphere
(Figure
8)
or
the
Atmosphere
itself,
as
we
shall
see
later.
In
this
way
in
fact,
all
of
the
carbon
that
is
extracted
from
the
Hydrosphere
and
released
into
the
Atmosphere,
returns
to
the
Hydrosphere
in
a
relatively
short
time,
and
the
carbon
content
of
the
pools
(and
the
global
climate)
remains
unchanged.

9. 9
Figure
8:
biogeochemical
carbon
cycle
for
carbon
in
a
seawater
syn-­‐gas
based
economy
2.3
Syn-­‐gas
for
Germany
Military
technology
has
quite
a
tradition
of
migrating
into
the
civilian
domain,
with
most
notably
examples
being
the
drones,
the
transistor,
the
GPS
and
the
Internet.
In
this
section
we
will
be
using
some
released
information
to
infer
what
would
be
needed
for
this
technology
to
be
able
to
produce
the
whole
gasoline
consumption
of
a
country
as
Germany
(where
the
author
currently
lives).
Our
case
study
will
be
a
syn-­‐gas
plant
with
a
production
capacity
of
100,000
gallons
per
day
(0.375
millions
of
liters
per
day,
or
Ml/day
for
short).
According
to
the
released
information,
to
produce
this
amount
of
syn-­‐gas,
the
plant
would
need
to
process
8,900
Ml/day
of
seawater,
equivalent
to
a
cube
of
200
meters
of
side.
Note
that
due
to
lack
of
reliable
data,
it
is
assumed
for
what
follows
that
1
liter
of
crude
oil
is
converted
in
1
liter
of
gasoline.
As
late
as
2014,
Germany’s
oil
consumption
was
2,400,000
barrels/day
(288
Ml/day),
which
is
770
as
much
as
the
production
of
the
plant
used
in
our
case
study.
Making
the
necessary
proportion,
it
turns
out
that
the
amount
of
water
to
be
processed
to
satisfy
Germany’s
consumption
is
35
times
the
mean
flow
of
the

10. 10
Rein
river
(198,000
Ml/day).
Note
that
all
of
the
above
assume
a
100%
efficiency,
hence
all
of
the
estimates
should
probably
be
doubled
for
a
real
plant.
However,
as
this
technique
requires
seawater,
it
would
not
be
necessary
for
Germany
to
create
35
dams
on
the
course
of
the
Rein
river.
Instead,
a
combination
of
offshore
wind
farm
and
modified
oil
platforms
would
have
to
do
the
job.
More
precisely,
the
platforms
would
host
the
machinery
responsible
for
the
syn-­‐
gas
production,
while
the
wind
fields
should
provide
renewable
power
to
the
system
(Figure
9).
Tankers
or
pipelines
can
than
be
used
to
bring
the
oil
to
the
mainland.
Figure
9:
Artistic
impression
of
an
off-­‐shore
wind
farm
(left)
and
a
traditional
oil
platform
(right)
Figure
10:
Carbon
cycle
in
proximity
of
a
syn-­‐gas
platform

11. 11
There
is
no
reason
to
worry
that
the
syn-­‐gas
platforms
will
extract
all
of
the
carbon
in
the
water
around
the
rig
causing
the
production
to
stop,
nor
that
the
excessive
CO2
extraction
will
make
the
ocean
to
basic
to
sustain
life.
As
previously
mentioned,
the
exchange
rate
between
Atmosphere
and
Idrosphere
is
very
high,
and
hence
is
opinion
of
the
author
that
air
and
ocean
will
always
be
in
equilibrium,
provided
few
simple
precautions
to
maximize
the
carbon
flux
between
water
and
air,
like
nebulize
the
process
water
before
releasing
it
into
the
atmosphere
(Figure
10).
Something
similar
have
been
claimed
by
the
US
Navy’s
researchers.
3.
Gasoline
from
fresh
water
and
air
To
translate
into
reality
what
presented
in
section
1.3,
one
need
to
know
how
much
renewable
energy
from
wind
is
actually
available
to
be
converted
into
syn-­‐
gas.
However,
this
may
be
an
unnecessary
intellectual
exercise,
as
four
different
institutions
other
than
the
US
Navy
have
started
the
production
of
their
own
syn-­‐
gas,
using
a
slightly
different
method
that
makes
use
of
fresh
water
and
air.
First
to
produce
syn-­‐gas
after
the
US
Navy
was
a
British
company
called
Air
Fuel
Synthesis,
that
broke
the
news
on
October
2012;
next
year,
on
November,
it
was
the
time
of
the
Ben-­‐Gurion
University
of
Negev,
in
Israel,
followed
in
November
2014
by
a
German
company
named
Sunfire.
Furthermore,
a
european
research
project
called
Solar
Jet
has
been
launched
in
April
2014,
with
a
slightly
different
focus.

12. 12
Figure
11:
biogeochemical
carbon
cycle
for
carbon
in
a
civilian
syn-­‐gas
based
economy
Figure
12:
Scheme
of
a
syn-­‐methane
production
plant
(Somnath
et
al.,2010).
In
the
paper
it
is
suggested
that
that
the
water
can
also
be
harvested
from
atmospheric
water
vapor.
3.1
Air
Fuel
Synthesis,
UK,
Oct
2012

13. 13
Few
months
after
the
US
Navy
flying
a
model
aircraft
using
syn-­‐gas,
a
British
company
called
Air
Fuel
Synthesis
announced
the
production
of
the
first
batch
of
their
own
syn-­‐gas
obtained
by
fresh
water
and
CO2
collected
from
the
atmosphere.
At
the
time,
the
machine
was
powered
by
the
traditional
power
grid,
while
CO2
was
collected
from
the
atmosphere,
which
was
an
inefficient
and
inexpensive
process.
According
to
the
news
in
fact,
the
cost
of
extracting
a
ton
of
CO2
was
roughly
400
pounds.
The
company
announced
that
in
the
future,
renewable
energies
were
going
to
provide
power,
making
their
syn-­‐gas
carbon-­‐neutral
(Figure
13).
In
addition,
to
increase
efficiency,
CO2
was
to
be
harvested
from
industrial
sources,
where
concentration
is
higher.
In
2012,
the
company
was
expecting
to
increase
the
production
to
1
ton
of
petrol
per
day
(roughly
1200
liters)
in
a
couple
of
years,
and
to
complete
a
refinery-­‐
scale
plant
within
15
years.
In
2014,
AFS
was
awarded
a
Regional
Growth
Fund
and
expected
to
start
servicing
customers
in
early
2015.
Figure
13:
Scheme
from
Air
Fuel
Synthesis
illustrating
the
company’s
production
chain
3.2
Sunfire
GmbH,
D,
Nov
2014

14. 14
The
second
company
producing
syn-­‐gas
using
the
civilian
method
is
a
spin-­‐off
of
Audi,
is
based
in
Dresden
(Germany),
and
is
expected
to
start
commercial
exploitation
of
this
technique
by
2016
by
selling
fuel
for
diesel
engine
at
an
expected
price
of
1-­‐1.5
euro
per
liter.
At
the
end
of
2014,
the
production
capacity
of
the
plant
was
roughly
160
liters
per
day,
with
an
overall
energy
efficiency
of
fuel
creation
using
renewable
energy
of
70
percent.
The
high
efficiency
was
obtained
by
powering
steam
electrolysis
using
the
excess
heat
in
other
processes
of
the
chain.
Figure
13:
Adapted
scheme
from
Sunfire
GmbH
illustrating
the
company’s
production
chain
Sunfire’s
production
chain
is
showed
in
Figure
13.
First
renewable
sources
are
used
to
produce
electricity
(a),
to
power
the
whole
process,
including
the
electrolysis
cell
charged
with
separating
H2O
into
H2
and
O2(b).
The
harvested
H2
is
then
combined
with
CO2
from
industrial
sources
and
converted
into
CO
and
H2O
into
a
first
chemical
reactor
(c).
The
final
step
consists
in
combining
the
produced
CO
with
H2
in
the
Fischer-­‐Tropf
reactor
(d)
to
obtain
syn-­‐gas
(methane
in
Figure
13d)
and
water.
Note
that
the
only
waste
product
of
the
whole
process
is
oxygen.
The
Fisher-­‐Tropf
reactor
was
developed
in
1925
in
Germany,
to
convert
coal
into
a
liquid
hydrocarbon.
In
recent
years,
it
has
been
used
by
different
countries
with
limited
amount
of
oil
to
obtain
gasoline
from
other
kind
of
fuels.
It
is
the
case
of
South
Africa
(coal),
Qatar
(natural
gas)
and
Finland
(biomass).
3.3
Solar
Jet
Project,
EU,
Apr
2014
Optimazation
of
the
overall
efficiency
of
the
previously
described
chain
of
processes
(see
Section
3.2)
is
most
likely
the
goal
of
a
european
research
project
called
Solar
Jet.

15. 15
The
syn-­‐gas’s
production
chain
as
intended
by
this
project
still
has
a
Fisher-­‐
Tropf
reactor
to
the
end,
but
combines
the
first
three
process,
namely
power
generation
from
a
renewable
source,
hydrogen
production
due
to
electrolysis
and
conversion
of
CO2
into
CO,
into
a
single
step
performed
by
what
is
defined
as
a
‘Solar
Reactor’,
or
‘Concentrated
Solar
Energy
Reactor’
(Figure
14).
Figure
14:
Scheme
from
Solar
Jet
illustrating
the
fuel’s
production
chain
as
intended
by
the
project
Figure
15:
Scheme
of
the
concentrated
solar
energy
reactor.
Note
that
input
and
output
are
the
same
as
in
the
Sunfire
production
chain
right
before
the
Fischer-­‐Tropf
reactor
(credit:
Solar
Jet)
Research
on
said
Solar
Reactor
is
the
focus
of
the
project,
which
likely
aims
to
increase
the
overall
efficiency
by
combining
three
different
processes
into
one.

16. 16
It
is
clear
comparing
Figures
13
and
15,
that
Input
and
output
of
the
concentrated
solar
energy
reactor
are
exactly
the
same
as
in
the
Sunfire
process
line
before
the
Fisher-­‐Tropf
reactor.
4.
Potential
customers
and
Further
applications
In
Figure
16,
the
upper
map
shows
the
oil
production
per
nation,
while
the
lower
map
shows
corresponding
oil
consumption.
The
difference
between
the
two
allows
for
teasing
apart
oil
exporters
and
importers.
In
this
way
it
is
relatively
easy
to
understand
which
countries
may
find
convenient
to
start
extracting
gasoline
from
water.
Figure
16:
Map
of
oil
production
values
for
different
countries
(above)
and
corresponding
map
for
consumption
values
(below).
Countries
that
will
be
interested
in
this
technique
should
be
China
and
India,
so
already
half
of
the
global
population,
then
Japan
and
South
Korea,
the
US
themselves,
and
more
or
less
the
whole
Europe.
By
contrast,
oil
exporters
are
not
going
to
be
particularly
happy
because
they
are
going
to
loose
money.

17. 17
However,
it
was
noted
many
times
in
the
past
that
the
abundance
of
fossil
fuels
in
a
country’s
soil
often
produces
an
excessively
polarized
economy
and
concentrates
huge
amounts
of
money
in
the
hands
of
few
individuals.
This
allows
for
corruption
to
spread
at
all
levels
of
society,
turning
what
should
have
been
a
blessing
into
its
exact
contrary.
Should
synthetic
fuels
spread
worldwide,
this
would
be
a
serious
incentive
for
oil
exporters
to
diversify
their
economy.
For
this
reason,
it’s
opinion
of
the
author
that
syn-­‐gas
may
in
the
long
term
produce
beneficial
effects
also
in
the
traditional
oil
exporters.
The
technique
can
of
course
be
used
to
synthetize
methane,
so
a
similar
reasoning
can
be
done
for
the
natural
gas
market.
The
problem
is
that
methane
is
a
much
more
powerful
greenhouse
gas
than
carbon
dioxide;
hence
if
CO2
is
harvested
only
to
be
converted
into
CH4
that
is
then
spilled
into
the
atmosphere
along
the
distribution
grid,
the
greenhouse
effect
is
still
going
to
get
worse.
If
this
technique
is
used
to
produce
syn-­‐methane,
great
care
must
be
put
into
minimizing
methane
spill
into
the
atmosphere
to
maintain
the
carbon-­‐neutrality
of
the
process,
although
this
will
have
of
course
a
cost.
The
best
course
of
action
may
actually
be
to
burn
it
on
the
spot
to
produce
electricity.
Same
holds
for
the
unwanted
methane
inevitably
produced
while
trying
to
obtain
syn-­‐gas.
For
countries
heavily
relying
on
methane
to
produce
electricity,
the
best
course
of
action
will
probably
be
to
build
a
syn-­‐methane
plant
beside
each
traditional
thermal
methane
plant.
It
is
the
author’s
opinion
that
by
adding
a
further
step
in
the
process,
it
may
be
possible
to
create
a
synthetic
coal
as
well;
this
may
have
important
implication,
as
coal
was
responsible
for
44
percent
of
the
global
CO2
emissions
in
2012
esteem.
Unfortunately,
coal
is
in
fact
extremely
cheap,
only
48.16$
per
short
ton
in
2015,
making
extremely
difficult
for
a
hypothetical
syn-­‐coal
to
conquer
part
of
the
market.
5.
Conclusions
Syn-­‐gas
produced
using
either
of
the
presented
methods:
1. Solves
the
main
problem
of
renewable
energy,
which
is
usually
very
intermittent
and
unpredictable
due
to
its
dependence
on
meteorological
weather,
and
it
turns
them
into
easy
to
store
and
handle
hydrocarbons.
2. Allows
for
keeping
the
energetic
infrastructure
mostly
unchanged,
unlike
for
example
hydrogen,
that
also
have
other
issues
still
in
need
to
be
addressed.
3. Allows
for
energetic
independence
for
potentially
any
nation,
with
likely
increase
of
worldwide
wellbeing
and
reduction
in
the
global
conflictuality.

18. 18
Acknowledgement
The
author
wish
to
thank
all
those
whose
support
and
comments
helped
to
improve
the
current
manuscript,
especially
Dietrich
Feist,
Min
Jung
Kwon
and
Friedemann
Reum,
from
MPI-­‐BGC
in
Jena.
References
Lobo, Prem, Donald E. Hagen, and Philip D. Whitefield. "Comparison of PM emissions from a
commercial jet engine burning conventional, biomass, and Fischer–Tropsch
fuels." Environmental science & technology 45.24 (2011): 10744-10749.
Righi, Mattia, et al. "Climate impact of biofuels in shipping: global model studies of the aerosol
indirect effect." Environmental science & technology45.8 (2011): 3519-3525.
Roy, Somnath C., et al. "Toward solar fuels: photocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to
hydrocarbons." Acs Nano 4.3 (2010): 1259-1278.
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-­‐releases/2012/fueling-­‐the-­‐fleet-­‐navy-­‐
looks-­‐to-­‐the-­‐seas
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/seawater-­‐to-­‐fuel-­‐navy-­‐vessels-­‐
_n_5113822.html
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-­‐navy-­‐lab-­‐turns-­‐seawater-­‐into-­‐
fuel/1919512.html
http://www.vice.com/read/can-­‐we-­‐really-­‐fly-­‐planes-­‐on-­‐seawater
http://www.sunfire.de/en/
http://airfuelsynthesis.com
http://www.geek.com/science/german-­‐company-­‐can-­‐make-­‐gasoline-­‐from-­‐
water-­‐and-­‐airborne-­‐co2-­‐1609987/
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5953227/engineers-­‐create-­‐gasoline-­‐from-­‐air-­‐and-­‐
water-­‐yes-­‐really
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-­‐researchers-­‐develop-­‐revolutionary-­‐
alternative-­‐fuel-­‐process/
https://www.ethz.ch/en/news-­‐and-­‐events/eth-­‐
news/news/2014/04/solarjet.html