Carbon-neutral fuel

Carbon-neutral fuel is fuel which produces no net-greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint. In practice, this usually means fuels that are made using carbon dioxide (CO2) as a feedstock. Proposed carbon-neutral fuels can broadly be grouped into synthetic fuels, which are made by chemically hydrogenating carbon dioxide, and biofuels, which are produced using natural CO2-consuming processes like photosynthesis.[1]

The carbon dioxide used to make synthetic fuels may be directly captured from the air, recycled from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater. Common examples of synthetic fuels include ammonia and methane,[2] although more complex hydrocarbons such as gasoline and jet fuel[3] have also been successfully synthesized artificially. In addition to being carbon neutral, such renewable fuels can alleviate the costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels, enabling continued compatible and affordable vehicles.[4] In order to be truly carbon-neutral, any energy required for the process must be itself be carbon-neutral or emissions-free, like renewable energy or nuclear energy.[5][6][7][8]

If the combustion of carbon-neutral fuels is subject to carbon capture at the flue, they result in net-negative carbon dioxide emission and may thus constitute a form of greenhouse gas remediation. Negative emissions are widely considered an indispensable component of efforts to limit global warming, although negative emissions technologies are currently not economically viable for private sector companies.[9] Carbon credits are likely to play an important role for carbon-negative fuels.[10]

  1. ^ Trakimavičius, Lukas (October 6, 2021). "Synthetic fuels can bolster energy security in the Baltic region". EurActiv. Archived from the original on October 6, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  2. ^ Leighty and Holbrook (2012) "Running the World on Renewables: Alternatives for Trannd Low-cost Firming Storage of Stranded Renewable as Hydrogen and Ammonia Fuels via Underground Pipelines" Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition November 9–15, 2012, Houston, Texas
  3. ^ "Air Fuel Synthesis shows petrol from air has future". Archived from the original on 2019-06-05. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Pearson2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Zeman, Frank S.; Keith, David W. (2008). "Carbon neutral hydrocarbons" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. 366 (1882): 3901–18. Bibcode:2008RSPTA.366.3901Z. doi:10.1098/rsta.2008.0143. PMID 18757281. S2CID 2055798. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 25, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2012. (Review.)
  6. ^ Wang, Wei; Wang, Shengping; Ma, Xinbin; Gong, Jinlong (2011). "Recent advances in catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide". Chemical Society Reviews. 40 (7): 3703–27. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.666.7435. doi:10.1039/C1CS15008A. PMID 21505692. (Review.)
  7. ^ MacDowell, Niall; et al. (2010). "An overview of CO2 capture technologies" (PDF). Energy and Environmental Science. 3 (11): 1645–69. doi:10.1039/C004106H. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-12-11. Retrieved 2019-07-16. (Review.)
  8. ^ Eisaman, Matthew D.; et al. (2012). "CO2 extraction from seawater using bipolar membrane electrodialysis". Energy and Environmental Science. 5 (6): 7346–52. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.698.8497. doi:10.1039/C2EE03393C. Archived from the original on November 23, 2021. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
  9. ^ McKie, Robin (2021-01-16). "Carbon capture is vital to meeting climate goals, scientists tell green critics". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  10. ^ Mathews, John A. (March 2008). "Carbon-negative biofuels; 6:The role of carbon credits". Energy Policy. 36 (3): 940–945. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2007.11.029.