Quote:"Air Fuel Synthesis converts carbon dioxide and water into synthetic hydrocarbon liquids from which sustainable fuels or other oil based products can be made.

AFS fuels provide a proven solution for sustainable transport fuels of all types, ultimately up to and including renewable aviation fuel - a fuel that is particularly difficult to obtain from other non-fossil sources."

Quote:How much CO2, power and water does AFS need to make a litre of fuel?

We need 3.9kg of CO2 to make one kilogram, or about 3.1kg to make one litre of gasoline. A typical ammonia plant would make well over 1000 tons of CO2 per day. So a large gasoline reactor would probably use all the CO2 from a very large ammonia plant. We need about 30 kilowatts of power to make one kilogram of gasoline. The main energy cost is the cost of making the hydrogen through electrolysis of water. Most hydrogen is manufactured by steam reforming fossil fuels but our objective is to use sustainable energy, such as wind, hydro, and perhaps solar.

To make a ton of gasoline we would need about four and a half tons of water. However, all the water used to make the hydrogen is regenerated during methanol and gasoline synthesis, and some could be recycled.

Quote:The aircraft uses "scramjet" technology, an engine with virtually no moving parts. It uses oxygen from the atmosphere for its engines, as opposed to carrying large fuel tanks that rockets require, making it a more efficient vehicle for military or commercial purposes.

Additionally, because of the high speeds the vehicle is also able to ride on the shockwave it creates at six times the speed of sound, increasing efficiency, according to an Air Force factsheet on the X-51A. It says that is also the genesis of the vehicle's nickname, the Waverider.