BMW i Ventures, a subsidiary of the BMW group, announced the financial and organizational support of the startup Prometheus Fuels. We are talking about the amount of about $12.5 million now – which is very handy, as the start of production is planned for the second half of 2020. It will be a new type of fuel, a full analogue of gasoline, but is not produced from oil, and filtered from the air carbon.
Prometheus Fuels a startup is the brainchild of doctor of science at Yale University and author of a number of other high-tech projects Rob McGinnis. He has already listed a number of developments in the field of creation of automobile, missile and aircraft fuels based on unconventional sources. The main of them – CO2 contained in the air, and energy for its processing taken exclusively from renewable sources.
The main advantage of Prometheus Fuels and at the same time subject of interest to BMW is getting on the exit of the fuel molecularly identical to gasoline produced from petroleum. Enough to put another rack at the gas station and fill them with any car with the engine without upgrading. In this case, since the production of such fuels contributes to the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, the emissions from burning it are automatically reset to zero. And it promises big advantages in the light of current policy aimed at protecting the environment.
Main question: how to make a diesel competitive conventional? That’s where the money and help from BMW, where interested in this type of fuel because it can be called “green” and to continue to produce cars with internal combustion engines. Or, at least, stretch the transition to electric traction to cut their losses. At most, Dr. McGinnis promises to transfer all the traffic in the world for fuels from CO2, which will reduce emissions by 10 gigatonnes or 25 % of the current volume.
Source — Prometheus