Car Coach Reports : Synthetic gas to replace

Not watching it (maybe later) but hasn't synthetic fuels been around for a while? I wonder how much they cost.

I remember when biodiesel was "big". I rather liked the stuff, was willing to pay a bit extra to run a bio blend. Thing is, just a few years after my model year car came out, it seems that OEM's started putting really low limits on allowable biodiesel content. B20 did have an impact on emissions-out and I want to say, that was part of the problem. [Maybe it was more about the ever-increasing fuel pressure and risks that biodiesel blends could carry, not sure.] Change the chemicals going in, that changes the chemical byproducts coming out. So... is emissions out the same as regular non-synthetic gasoline?

Of course, energy in / energy out. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Where does the energy going into this come from?
 
The Nazis during WW2 created syn fuel out of coal.
I recall that. Not much "saving the earth" if one does that, I don't see how that would make less CO2 per mile.

I skipped through the vid a couple times, heard something about taking hydrogen and combining, etc. Hydrogen isn't free... but I wonder. There's lots of hydro-carbon chains in a barrel of crude. I wonder if the bunker fuel could be a feedstock? Seems like you'd spend more energy trying to clean it up and strip to hydrogen, but I'm no chemist.
 
I recall that. Not much "saving the earth" if one does that, I don't see how that would make less CO2 per mile.

I skipped through the vid a couple times, heard something about taking hydrogen and combining, etc. Hydrogen isn't free... but I wonder. There's lots of hydro-carbon chains in a barrel of crude. I wonder if the bunker fuel could be a feedstock? Seems like you'd spend more energy trying to clean it up and strip to hydrogen, but I'm no chemist.

Details...details....;)
 
I look at it like Pennzoil's Gas-to-Liquid.

Got a bunch of Natural gas but nowhere to put it? Process it into something you can store and ship.
 
Porsche is investing millions into this with a plant located in Chile specifically so that they can try to keep the 911 using a proper gasoline engine as long as possible. It won't be cheaper than normal gasoline but I'm all for it. Electric doesn't work and will never work.
 
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