Timothy Murphy wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Its easy enough to use electricity to SYNTHESISE hydrocarbon fuels, if
its cheap enough energy.
Really ... how?

I would not have thought it made sense to synthesize hydrocarbon fuels,
in any case, however cheap electricity was.
Surely there are better ways of using electricity to turn wheels?


Possibly not.

Take aircraft. Although the highest energy density of any (oxidisng
chemical) fuel is hydrogen, kerosene is about the best energy per unit
volume.

That seems very improbable to me.
Kerosene is a complicated mixture of hydrocarbons.
It would be a sort of miracle if rotting tree trunks
produced the most efficient propulsive agent.

Well go and look it up then. There are tables on the net of energy
densities and specific weights etc.

Kerosene is NOT the natural product of rotting tree trunks..its a
distillate fraction of what comes out of the ground.


I can't remember the basic synthesis for hydrocarbons, but they are
presumably makable from CO2 and water..somehow..Probably a lot of heat
and pressure..

You said it was easy ...

Well that's how we make plastics from gas, so its not as though its very
hard is it? plastic isn't as expensive as viagra..