THE WORLD’S first industrial plant using solar heat to make fuels has been opened in Germany. Using a vast array of mirrors that focus the sun’s heat onto a tower, the technology’s developer Synhelion plans to use its process to produce greener fuel for planes, ships and cars, and even low-carbon cement.
  • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    12·
    4 months ago

    The key chemistry bit:

    The receiver heats a gaseous heat transfer fluid which circulates in a closed loop, delivering the high-temperate process heat to the thermochemical reactor and the thermal energy store. In the reactor, CO2, water vapour, and methane sourced from biowaste are heated with the solar energy over a catalyst which produces a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen known as syngas. This is then piped down the tower to a Fischer-Tropsch unit which converts it into a synthetic crude which a refinery would then process into kerosene for planes, diesel or methanol for ships and trucks, and petrol for cars.

    Fischer-Tropsch process