Yeah, yeah. Ping me when it scales

[rcjordan]

Researchers demonstrate complete solar-powered hydrocarbon production
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/11/researchers-demonstrate-complete-solar-powered-hydrocarbon-production/

Using microbes to make carbon-neutral fuel - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis
https://source.wustl.edu/2021/11/using-microbes-to-make-carbon-neutral-fuel/

[ergophobe]

Sometimes scaling is the hard part and sometimes it isn't. If you have 23 ways to achieve the result and three scale, that's great.

I think these are super encouraging. They talk about aviation 0.5% of the Sahara being required at current efficiencies, but I wonder what percentage of Saudi Arabia would be required. If done at scale, it addresses some serious problems with solar energy - how do you get it from one place to another and how do you store it for when it's dark.

[Rupert]

I think the problem with hydrogen is the storage, it supposedly takes 40% of its energy to compress it to liquid. so that is exciting to me. Neatly duck the problem if I understand it right.

The resulting carbon monoxide and hydrogen are sent to a second reaction chamber, where a commercial copper-based catalyst can convert them to fuels like methanol or kerosene,