this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
33 points (94.6% liked)

Science

15555 readers
2 users here now

Studies, research findings, and interesting tidbits from the ever-expanding scientific world.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
alyaza@beehaw.org
Gaywallet@beehaw.org
remington@beehaw.org
33
New York Startup Builds Fridge-Sized Machine That Can Turn Air Into Gasoline (www.jalopnik.com)
submitted 5 days ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The main reason why this process isn't "something for nothing" is that it takes twice as much electrical energy to produce energy in the form of gasoline. As Aircela told The Autopian:

Aircela is targeting >50% end to end power efficiency. Since there is about 37kWh of energy in a gallon of gasoline we will require about 75kWh to make it. When we power our machines with standalone, off-grid, photovoltaic panels this will correspond to less than $1.50/gallon in energy cost.

Doesn't it sort of defeat the purpose of gasoline being used because it's so energy dense? Like, this seems to suggest little more than the benefits of electrification in transport.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

so turn air into gasoline, burn the gasoline and replace the air with crap that is the burning product. So this is kind of a terraforming device that will make the planet inhabitable for us even faster if used widely and large scale enough.