NRL Fuel From Sea Concept -- First Demonstrated Flight (IMAGE)
Caption
Researchers at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have made significant advances in the development of carbon capture technologies. Using an innovative and proprietary NRL electrolytic cation exchange module, both dissolved and bound carbon dioxide (CO2) are removed from seawater at 92 percent efficiency by re-equilibrating carbonate and bicarbonate to (CO2) and simultaneously producing hydrogen gas (H2). In the laboratory CO2 and H2 gases have been converted to liquid hydrocarbons by a metal catalyst in a reactor system to produce fuel.
In March 2013, the team of scientists conducted a 'run-up' test of the liquid hydrocarbon fuel using an off-the-shelf radio-controlled model aircraft powered by an unmodified two-stroke internal combustion engine. Later that same year the team demonstrated proof-of-concept, achieving sustained flight of the model aircraft at the laboratory's Blossom Point Proving Grounds, Blossom Point, Maryland. The flight test exhibited, for the first time, the potential for transition of this novel technology from the laboratory to full-scale commercial implementation.
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U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
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