The US Navy has announced that, in their opinion, they have solved one of the world's major challenges - how to extract fuel from seawater. At the beginning of April, a model airplane with a 2-stroke engine successfully flew with such fuel. Seawater is a source of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, from which hydrocarbons - liquid synthetic fuel - are then formed on a metal catalyst.
As they say in the Navy, you could production of liquid hydrocarbon fuels from the sea water meant a complete change in their operation. Because they would shake off dependence on oil and huge transport costs, warships could operate at sea all the time, without port stops for refueling.
However, not everything is as good as it sounds. The first dizzying data is that for production 1 liter of usable synthetic fuel they spend just 23,000 liters of sea water! Process production of synthetic fuel also it's not organic at all, as it is exceptional energy wasteful. As they say for the conversion process they need nuclear reactor, which is otherwise not a particularly restrictive requirement for the navy, since a large proportion of submarines and aircraft carriers are already operating on nuclear propulsion.
Still, though statement, that it is about obtaining fuel from renewable sources is not quite suitable. We also ask ourselves where are they going all those thousands of liters of sea water, used in the procedure production of synthetic fuel? Is this sea water still suitable for return to the natural environment and how it will affect the life of marine organisms? The technology was clearly designed for the specific needs and convenience of the Navy.
