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A comment on Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline. Parent comment

Re:Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and ... by rlucas on Monday May 06, 2019 @04:23PM (#19843419)
If the alcohol upgrade to gasoline makes sense technically and economically for you, why is it not commonly done with (presumably much cheaper and extant in great volume) industrial alcohol today?
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Re:Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and ... by Iv on Monday May 06, 2019 @10:41PM (#19845955)
Actors are not necessarily as rational as Econ 101 would have us believe. Incomplete information, misinformation and advertisement distort the market. As well as monopolistic practices.

A lot of conspiracy theories are paranoid, but the propaganda machine of the oil industry is very real and managed to incite a lot of economically counter-productive policies.

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Re:Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and ... by gridlockd on Monday May 06, 2019 @05:16PM (#19843972)
He said "inexpensive", not "economical". The whole process isn't economical yet. Perhaps conversion is more economical with their particlar sorts of alcohol though.
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Re:Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and ... by rlucas on Monday May 06, 2019 @05:23PM (#19844029)
Understood, although eventually it has to become "economical" or it doesn't fly.

My point was, you can view the alcohols as a feedstock for the gasoline production, and given that, you might just stream in large quantities of already-produced and cheap grain ethanol etc. from Indiana.

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Re:Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and ... by hndamien on Monday May 06, 2019 @09:39PM (#19845669)
It is more likely that polluting methods (net non-zero) will be forced to become uneconomical.
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Re:Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and ... by m1sta_ on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @03:52AM (#19847383)
Ethanol mixed fuel is common in a lot of places.
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Re:Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and ... by askvictor on Monday May 06, 2019 @06:03PM (#19844389)
I might have misunderstood your point, but I believe alcohol is commonly used as a fuel in Brazil, where most cars are capable of using it directly.
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