Morris Minor Owners Club

Did anyone else see the article in yesterdays Independent news paper about "Air Fuel Synthesis" ?
A company in Stockton on tees that have synthesised fuel from co2 extracted from the atmosphere and mixed with water vapour.
A full scale plant will be available in 2 years or so apparently.
Worth a google anyway, and no its not the 1st of April.

It's taken them 3 months to produce 5 litres. And they've spent £1million in the last 12 months.

So it's unlikely to meet current demands, but is already competitive on current prices.

Yes I saw it on the news.

fasinating stuff.

Chris, cars take billions of pounds and ten years to develop, so fairly competitive. Also the cost to find then pull raw oil from the ground costs billions.

I think economies of scale will stabilise fairly quickly.
Looking at the cost of drawing oil from the ground, including safety/environmental issues and the areas now being explored being the most inhospitable to date, it wont take long to prove it viable.
The difficulty as I see it is the perception of the public and possibly investors,there have been so many false starts in this area already.
Also if successful on a large scale what does it do to the long term investment in electric vehicles, will manufacturers once again sit back and ask what the point is in investing in that technology, if a new green fuel can power existing designs of the internal combustion engine ?
The nation that embraces this fuel wholeheartedly, will also be self sufficient in an area that provides a fantastic opportunity to free itself of the shackles of Mid East influence, no small feat.
Employment will suffer in the short term though, although process plants will be built, oil cracker plants will close,drilling will be non-existant,rigs will be redundant,and the Scots may not find independence quite so attractive.