Re:Terraform makes carbon neutral natural gas
by pfdietz on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @04:32PM
(#39922702)
We use all that because natural gas is cheap. If hydrogen were cheaper than natural gas, we'd use that instead, at least for the industrial processes, and we'd switch away from combustion of a gas in the distributed residential/commercial applications.
Re:Terraform makes carbon neutral natural gas
by groby_b on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @05:10PM
(#39923199)
And if wishes were horses... ;)
Kidding aside: That's the whole point. This is a project that can work without retooling infra all over the world. It's a drop-in replacement to get to carbon-neutral fuel.
This solves problems right now, with limited investment. This isn't about perfection. This is specifically about "works right now, cheap, no impact on the surrounding infrastructure".
(Also, strong doubts on "we'd use hydrogen instead", because storage is a beast. Until that's solved, there is no chance we'd use that)
Re:Terraform makes carbon neutral natural gas
by pfdietz on Wednesday April 03, 2024 @05:25PM
(#39923386)
I don't believe their cost figures (look above; their 250/t for CO2 doesn't jibe), and I think electrification of most residential/commercial uses will be the superior solution (it's more efficient even if the electricity is produced by burning natural gas). Industrially, hydrogen is just fine. After all, industry already manipulates vast quantities of hydrogen.
The fossil fuel uses that are the most difficult to displace involve liquid fuels for transportation; natural gas has limited use there.
Higher complexity hydrocarbons likely have higher synthesis costs, and if you want to enter the market, you probably want your pricing as competitive as possible.
Same for the biomass approach.
It is ultimately an approach striving for as much simplicity as possible. That's firmly baked in their culture, too - see their home page :)