PRODUCING GASOLINE FROM AIR AND WATER SAKINA BABAYO ARDO A PETROLEUM PRODUCT ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION. SAKINA BABAYO ARDO A PETROLEUM PRODUCT ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION.

INTRODUCTION Renewable fuels are those fuels that are obtained from renewable sources. Renewable sources are usually natural and are reproduced by nature. The global world is slowly changing into a renewable energy world. The price of crude oil products and other non renewable energy sources continues to fluctuate. This makes a platform for the market for sustainable renewable energy sources to evolve.

INTRODUCTION The development of renewable energy sources can bring about diversity in energy supply markets. It can contribute to securing long term energy supplies. It can also reduce global emissions thereby helping the environment. To meet the energy service needs, employment opportunities will be generated which will be helpful especially to the development countries. The generation of renewable energy does not indicate that petroleum chemists don’t have anything to do. Instead they have the task of generating ways of generating petroleum products of renewable sources.

HYPOTHESIS Renewable sources can be used to produce fuels. Gasoline and other liquid hydrocarbon products can be produced from air and water. The air is used to produce carbon dioxide and the water is optimized to produce hydrogen.

AIM This research is aimed at creating ways of making more effective use of abundant energy sources such as air and water. It is also creating a pavement for the reduction of greenhouse effect in the environment by producing cleaner fuels. The process of minimizing the negative effect of climate change will be helped in the process

SIGNIFICANCE The potential of producing sustainable infrastructure for today’s infrastructure and machinery will also be catalyzed. Technology is been manipulated in such a way that it impacts a positive externality on the world energy crises.

INNOVATION In South Africa, the Sasol process is used to convert coal into a liquid hydrocarbon product. The coal is gasified into synthesis gas. Synthesis gas refers to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The Fisher Tropsch Technology then produces a gasoline range hydrocarbon product. What is the difference between coal and carbon dioxide? Coal is an energy rich fuel. Carbon dioxide however is the product of combustion of a fuel. It will always require energy to convert carbon dioxide back into a fuel that one will ever get when combusting the fuel. The process will obviously require more energy than it creates.

INNOVATION The innovation here is to connect the input and output processes to together. Carbon dioxide can be converted into gasoline. The gasoline will then be combusted to produce more Carbon dioxide which is fed back into the process.

DESIGN

FIRST STAGE Air is blown up into a tower which contains sodium hydroxide. The carbon dioxide in the air is absorbed and it reacts with some of the sodium hydroxide. This forms sodium carbonate. 2 NaOH + CO2 → Na2CO3 + H2O

SECOND STAGE The sodium hydroxide/carbonate solution obtained from Stage 1 is poured into an electrolysis cell through which an electric current is passed. This results in the release of the carbon dioxide which is captured and kept for subsequent reaction.

THIRD STAGE The water is condensed out of the air that is being passed into the sodium hydroxide spray tower with the help of a dehumidifier. The condensed water is passed into an electrolyser where an electric current divides the water into hydrogen and oxygen. The water can be obtained from different sources as far as it is pure enough to be used in the electrolytic cell.

FOURTH STAGE The carbon dioxide and hydrogen react together to form a hydrocarbon mixture. The type of fuel required determines the reaction conditions. This combination of carbon dioxide and hydrogen is done in two ways.

FIFTH STAGE A reverse-water-gas shift reaction is used to convert a carbon dioxide/water mixture to a carbon monoxide/hydrogen mixture called Syn Gas. CO + H 2 O CO 2 + H 2 - Syn gas

The Process *The clean syngas is liquefied in a Fischer Tropsch reactor. The clean syngas is then introduced in a reactor in which it undergoes a reaction in the presence of a catalyst (cobalt based). The Hydrogen and the carbon monoxide from the syngas react to form hydrocarbon chains. The type of hydrocarbons produced depends mostly on the catalyst used and the temperature of the reaction. The product is then refined. This mixture of hydrocarbons is then upgraded, just like in an oil refinery: the components are separated. Heavier components (if any) may be cracked, and lighter components are reformed.

The main reaction that occurs in a Fischer Tropsch reactor is the formation of alkanes C n H 2n+2 : (2n+1)H 2 + nCO -> C n H 2n+2 + nH 2 O (1) Other products are created: alkenes C n H 2n and alcohols C n H (2n+1) OH: nCO + 2nH 2 -> C n H 2n + nH 2 O (2) nCO + 2nH 2 -> C n H ( 2n+1) OH + (n-1)H 2 O (3)

ALTERNATIVE APPROACH The syn gas can be used to make methanol. The methanol is then used to make fuels using the methanol to gasoline technology.

Alternative Approach

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN DESIGN The problem with this process is that CO2 capture is too inefficient to be done on a commercial scale. Air Fuel Synthesis, a British Company uses industrial carbon dioxide to produce gasoline until it improves on the carbon dioxide capture.

CONCLUSION Though it can be an expensive process, it is an area of major scientific concern. The choice is now left for the scientists to decide if the process is advantageous enough for the gasoline to be produced from air and water. The benefits of this method have to be weighed to see if is worth the effort.

PRODUCING GASOLINE FROM AIR AND WATER.