Renevables are the future, but before they are ready to fullfull all needs (energy storage and needed investment are challenge), we need something – nuclear power is one tool that can be used.
Renevables are the future, but before they are ready to fullfull all needs (energy storage and needed investment are challenge), we need something – nuclear power is one tool that can be used.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Could Nuclear Be The Way To Produce Synthetic Fuel On The Cheap?
https://hackaday.com/2024/11/27/could-nuclear-be-the-way-to-produce-synthetic-fuel-on-the-cheap/
Fossil fuels can be a bit fussy to access, and geopolitics tends to make prices volatile. Burning them also takes carbon out of the ground and puts it into the atmosphere, with undesirable climate implications. The hunt for a solution has been on for quite some time.
Various synthetic fuels have been proposed as a solution, wherein carbon dioxide is captured from the air and chemically processed into useful fuel. Done properly, this could solve the climate issue where any fuel burned has its carbon later captured to make more fuel. The problem, though, is that this process is very energy intensive. Given the demands, it’s no surprise that some are looking towards nuclear reactors for the answer.
Burning fossil fuels is bad for the environment, but the problem is that they’re so very useful. Take transport, for example. Fossil fuels are perfect for this application because they pack a huge amount of energy into very little space while weighing relatively little to boot. At the same time, more than a third of global carbon emissions in 2021 came from transportation, according to the International Energy Agency. While electric vehicles are rapidly gaining market share in some areas, the complete phase out of internal combustion engines is by no means a sure thing. Meanwhile, sectors like aviation are proving especially difficult to fully electrify. We want to get off fossil fuels, but circumstances demand we continue to use them.