An infinite source of liquid fuel

Joseph Gallehugh,
Energy Industry Writer, Greensboro, NC

Liquid fuel from the sun? For years that tantalizing process has been the holy grail of clean, renewable energy. Scientists have actually produced a carbon dioxide and hydrogen precursor to gasoline, called syngas, on a pilot scale but have yet to practically produce gasoline from the sun's energy. So the commercial viability for the concept seems possible, yet distant.

Recent developments, however, have the concept gaining steam. One is a five-year, $17.5 million Department of Energy grant to establish an Energy Frontier Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Thomas Meyer, a world-renowned scientist who is the former associate director for strategic research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, directs the center.

In September a closely related energy innovation collaborative made up of UNC-CH, Duke University, North Carolina State University, and RTI International, announced the formation of the Research Triangle Solar Fuels Institute based in Research Triangle Park, NC.

A number of influential funding recommendations have lined up to support such alternative fuel development. Two separate entities: The American Energy Innovation Council, a group of top business executives that includes General Electric Chairman Jeffrey Immelt and former Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates; and The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), have called on the government to boost total funding for energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment to about $16 billion a year.

The American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the Breakthrough Institute, released a report in October that suggests federal funding for clean energy technology should increase to $25 billion annually.

Researchers point out that the sun provides more energy to the earth's surface in one hour than mankind uses in a year. As intriguing as that sounds, much work must be done to make "sunthetic" fuel, solar-driven transportation liquids such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, a reality. With the right combination of funding, new advancements in nanotechnology, and burgeoning knowledge in chemical and materials engineering, experts say it is possible that in as little as a decade scientists may be able to do what nature has done for millions of years through photosynthesis — create and store energy from the sun.

While Dr. Jim Trainham, executive director of the Research Triangle Solar Fuels Institute, hasn't projected a definitive cost for commercializing the process, he notes that, "Financing sunthetic research is not for the faint of heart. I expect only the oil and gas industry knows how to manage capital projects as big as these will be."

With that caveat, how would this new energy direction impact the oil and gas industry? That question evokes a plethora of other questions, and an endless stream of answers that have both positive and negative implications.

On the positive side, commercialization of solar fuels technology would create a monumental opportunity for the oil and gas industry. Commercialized sunthetics would ensure that the oil and gas industry continues to flourish, providing an endless supply of product to consumers.

"Financing sunthetic research is not for the faint of heart. I expect only the oil and gas industry knows how to manage capital projects as big as these will be." — Dr. Jim Trainham

Producing liquid fuel from the sun could gradually reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. This would temper global geo-political hotspots, reducing them from a boil to a simmer, because less oil would need to be imported by the US.

One compelling reason for the oil and gas industry to participate in the development of solar fuels is the minimal investment required to build new processing and distribution infrastructure such as refineries, pipelines, truck fleets, and tank farms. With the exception of minor retooling, the current downstream system would remain intact, unaffected by this redirected recipe for gasoline. That's because sunthetic solar fuels are the same chemically as the gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that are transported today and because they would require some level of refinement before going to the retail market.

Producing gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and sunthetic chemical feedstocks from the sun's energy is as basic as photosynthesis. The sunthetics process starts by splitting water with the sun's energy. When the hydrogen and oxygen are separated the oxygen is sold as an industrial gas while the hydrogen is stored for the next step in the process. In the next stage a catalytic reaction combines the hydrogen with carbon dioxide to yield intermediate fuels such as methanol and dimethylether (DME). In the last refinement stage, the final fuel is produced in the form of gasoline. Other fuels such as diesel, jet fuel, and kerosene will be produced via Fischer-Tropes synthesis.

Over time, commercialized sunthetics would transform the image of the oil and gas industry from an environmental villain to an ecological hero. The process used to produce clean, renewable gasoline from the sun, requires CO2 for a catalytic reaction with hydrogen. As a result, proponents estimate production of solar fuels will significantly reduce net lifecycle carbon intensity compared to petroleum-based fuel.

This technology isn't cheap to develop. Beyond research and development costs, will solar fuels require government subsidies to be economical?

"Capitol Hill ignores the hidden costs of oil and gasoline," Trainham says."That $3 we pay on average per gallon today at the pump is misleading. The true cost is $8 to $10."

The $5 to $7 in hidden costs is derived from taxpayers' cost to obtain the 53% of oil that the US imports, including the military cost of protecting the Persian Gulf. That number also includes public health and environmental costs as well as the loss of US jobs and the accompanying federal and state tax revenues lost due to imports.

"With gradual replacement of petroleum-based gasoline with solar fuels, as a substitute for imported oil," Trainham maintains, "Our country would experience a gradual, but significant, reduction in hidden costs. Any early government support for research and development, while finite, could be recouped. Considering oil's hidden costs, paying to replace gasoline with solar fuel is a good deal."

As for exploration and production, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP America, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron together spent $33.8 billion to find new oil and gas during the past three years, according to testimony provided to the House Energy & Commerce subcommittee by industry executives in 2010. Trainham believes a fraction of that amount would induce a tipping point toward making solar fuels a commercial reality. ExxonMobil alone is investing $600 million in research and development to produce energy from algae.

Still, a fraction of $33.8 billion is a lot of money. How high would the price of a gallon of gasoline have to be for solar fuels to be competitive with petroleum? Proponents don't know for sure but when hidden cost subsidies are added, presumably the cost would approach $8 to $10 a gallon. Trainham estimates a good goal for research is $5 per gallon of gasoline equivalent. Beyond that, it's anybody's guess.

Proponents stress that solar fuels science today is where solar electricity science was 30 years ago — in its infancy. At that time one of the landmarks of solar electricity advancement was that ARCO Solar produced more than one megawatt of photovoltaic modules in one year. In 2008 the US produced 8,775 megawatts solar-generated electricity.

As with solar electricity 30 years ago, there remains much to be refined, and much potential to be realized, from sunthetics development. Ultimately, while oil versus solar fuel futures may be modeled within the next five years, the development of solar fuels is subject to considerable research and development.

Proponents of solar fuels believe that when the cost of oil security and the cost of lost wealth related to imported oil are factored into prices, the crude versus solar fuels cost debate becomes moot. Trainham projects that when this new liquid fuel reaches commercialization it will not just compete, but will become a major source of all liquid transportation fuels in the future.

For more information, go to www.solarfuels.org. OGFJ

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