| If they make estimates like us, software developers, this is likely 50 to 100 years :-) The real revolution is that we won't have to drill oil and everybody will be able to make fuel from the air anywhere in the world. The economic and political consequences will be huge. However this process doesn't seem able to reduce greenhouse gases in the air. They say the fuel they get is carbon monoxide, methane, ethylene. Methane burns like this: CH4 + 4 O2 = 2 H2O + CO2.
The process to create that methane from CO2 probably starts with one molecule of CO2 because there is only one C in CH4, so we had one CO2 and we end up with one CO2. Carbon monoxide burns like 2 CO + O2 = 2 CO2. Ethylene burns like C2H4 + 3 O2 = 2 CO2 + 2 H2O. They also seem to preserve the number of total CO2 molecules around. To really reduce the CO2 in the air we should find a way to turn it into stone, something like this plant in Iceland https://qz.com/1100221/the-worlds-first-negative-emissions-p... |
Of course, they are chemical reactions. Did you think they would destroy atoms?
The idea here is to make renewable hydrocarbons: when you burn them, they are only putting CO2 that came from the atmosphere back, not releasing new CO2 from fossil fuels.
It assumes that you power this fuel-generator with renewable energy, of course.