Re:Ask HN: Could ships that convert CO2 + water to natural g...
by gerad on Monday October 17, 2011 @12:38PM
(#3121206)
The CO2 + 2H20 -> CH4 + 4O2 has seemingly been done (per the paper linked). I agree that the issue would likely be economic factors, but perhaps it's worth investigating those more fully. There are already tankers that transport liquified natural gas all over the world, so there's clearly enough economic incentive for that. The question, of course, is the solar bit.
Generating natural gas with 80% efficiency would solve tonnes of problems (if the price was right). If you could do that, you could get rid of 50% [totally made-up statistic] our existing power infrastructure - a good deal of our existing stuff is only there to "smooth out" demand. It would also make wind power a lot more practical.
If a ship could simply power itself, that would be a massive boon. Shipping companies would pay a lot for a ship that doesn't need to use fuel. And shipping doesn't always need to be timely - so storage isn't an issue.
If any part of your idea was economic, it would already be widely deployed. The main issue will be cost.