News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Jet fuel from thin air: Aviation's hope or hype?. Parent comment

Re:Jet fuel from thin air: Aviation's hope or hype? by mogadsheu on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @08:51PM (#21132482)
Finally, an expert! I’m not, although I’ve been involved in energy for a while now.

I believe the Germans made synfuels towards the end of WWII using Fischer Tropsch when they were running low on conventional fuels. What tech is new about this project, besides the energy source?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Jet fuel from thin air: Aviation's hope or hype? by dredmorbius on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @03:52AM (#21134202)
Germany, during WWII, and South Africa's SASOL since the 1970s:

https://www.netl.doe.gov/research/Coal/energy-systems/gasifi...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Jet fuel from thin air: Aviation's hope or hype? by jsilence on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @03:39AM (#21134143)
Two decades and some ago a german company named Choren also produced SunDiesel in a similar process. They shut down this line of work quite some time ago. Not feasible.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Jet fuel from thin air: Aviation's hope or hype? by jabl on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @08:01AM (#21135470)
They made synfuels from coal, which contains a lot of, uh, coal. So no need to capture it from the air. They didn't worry about CO2 pollution back then.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Jet fuel from thin air: Aviation's hope or hype? by dredmorbius on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @10:25AM (#21136781)
For fuel synthesis, you have two principle processes: carbon sourcing, and actually sythesizing the fuel.

Once you've got the coal sourced, most of the rest of the WWII process is directly applicable to modern carbon-capture methods.

[ Parent | on HN ]