We’re in an energy and climate crisis, it’s paradoxical. Hydrocarbons are powerful and portable, but limited and environmentally costly. For Episode 36 of S³ Terraform Industries goes in-depth and reveals how they’re making natural gas from thin air.
Startup: https://terraformindustries.com/
0:00 Our energy paradox
1:56 The maths
3:39 The master plan
7:07 1/4 Reactor
10:55 2/4 Injection system
11:51 3/4 Direct air capture
13:33 4/4 Electrolyzer
14:37 Next milestone
17:38 My thoughts…
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Ridiculous. have you ever heard of a heat pump? We don’t need to burn things to do stuff anymore and the last thing we need to do is spend five times the amount of energy creating things to burn. And by the way if you understand ppm then you should understand how ridiculous direct air capture is.
I knew I should have paid more attention in chemistry class — very interesting tech!
Interesting processes. I'm not a huge fan of cheap panels and singular use of the land but the other ideas make sense. We also don't need to burn the fuel to make it useful. An existing process called a solid oxide fuel cell can grab electrons and give you resources back. Fun stuff, and seemingly compatible with other processes.
wonder what the entire efficiency of the system is, seems like it involves multiple energy-intensive steps, direct air capture, water electrolysis, and the conversion of hydrogen and carbon dioxide to hydrocarbons.
Don't speed up your videos
Great episode. I wish that you'd linked casey's blog and twitter in the description, especially after telling us to visit them.
I like the tech because there are industries that are locked to hydrocarbons (rockets, emergency generators,…) but it’s kinda awkward to me cause the founder doesn’t even mention the transition away from hydrocarbons.
It’s almost like he’s saying we’re supposed to de-electrify and revert back to the ICE globally???
EDIT: he mentions direct air capture of CO2 on a massive scale around the 13 min mark, I guess which closes the loop
Played this video 2x cause it wasn't fast enough😅
Isaac Arthur talks about fusion reactor taking ambient co2 and compressing it into usable gasoline
Also luthemplar talks about yeast making diesel off grid fed waste sugars.
All these options should be aggressively explored
5x in order to make difference on temp, 5x on fermentation for food to feed all of humanity.
8:55 “nothing we’re doing here is particularly exotic” then you’re not contributing anything new. Methane synthesis, carbon capture, and electrolysis all are technologies that already exist, the problem is they are nowhere near energy or cost efficient enough for this application to make sense. You lose energy by having to capture fresh carbon directly from the air AND attach hydrogen atoms to it. Without any secret sauce, I don’t see what Terraform’s game plan is.
I have actually researched converting sun's energy in H2, but that is way to dangerous. In CH4 it seems much better!.
I found this episode great! The one thing I would suggest make this kind of content even better, would be to have a critical voice somewhere. What do "traditional minds" think of these kind of ideas? If the chemistry tech is from last century, why was this not done 10 years ago?
He better hurry the heck up… b/c other wise, things are going to go sideways on him.
Also this was a pretty solid YT vid. I do wish you'd posted to the guys twitter account a well.
Finally I watched it completely and this is just amazing. 17:00 speaks the volume and depth of his genuineness.
What is the energy input to output ratio?
Energy required to create the fuel source and then converted back to energy?
Perfectly done. The words that come out of KCs mouth are really something to pause and think about
I love this dude!
Incredibly smart, loves what he is talking about, loves teaching about it, he understands the economics, he understands the engineering and how they fit together. I love that energy!
And how you presented him and his company was amazing too, you let hm tell the whole story, that is a great interviewing skill. S3 has already become my new favorite engineering channel. Very much reminds me of the honeypot documentaries but for engineering stuff and not for software.
I can't believe this channel is as young as it is.
Please keep on doing what you are doing for a long time. ❤
I would like to ask Casey, as the foremost expert, if he thinks there's enough "fuel" in the air for a sustained extraction without solar. I'm asking if in the future, we will reach peak performance efficiency, could we reach a point were extraction uses less energy then gained. A good example is current oil (dig it up energy < useful energy extracted). If so I hope to see a future where this technology is miniaturized, and is powering all mobile devices. Computers used to be size of buildings, maybe in 10 years Casey's whole stack would fit inside a normal cell battery. That would be epic, wonder if the physics check out
Is this open source?? 17:00 He pretty much gives you everything this guy is just next levels of incredible
Incredible video! Thanks to S3 and Terraform Industries for sharing
Excellent video. Casey speaks very well and the idea could be extremely impactful.
I have never been this inspired. Thank you for this.
um… you already made from water via electrolysis hydrogen. Stop there! Use that!
In regards to the Direct Air Capture component of this 3 part system, what does extracting CO2 from cement have anything to do with this? Is this going to extract CO2 from air or from cement?
I can't believe Casey isn't a walrus. He assured me he was a walrus.
Very interesting work and well presented. A few questions; where will you get enough fresh water in the desert for the solar array reactor? Have you thought about using thermal solar to heat up the water? I know there is some cutting edge solar arrays being designed and built using mirrors and evacuated tubes to generate large amounts of heat to drive turbines, storing the heat in molten salts used as a battery. You might implement something like this in your reactor for a heat source. ?. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.
seems like efficient cheap co2 will be the hard part of this tech, rest is known for years
Trees also capture carbon using the sun's energy and can then be burned in a wood gasifier to create wood gas
Kiwi English speak fast and don’t open your mouth. Love it.
Fuel from air, sunlight, and water. Take my money!
Very good ❤
hella big brain, take my money
vertical hydroponic algae oil takes care of all the hydrocarbon issues here in earth, a few companies are doing it worldwide.
Its like looking at Bezo's before he was filthy rich.
THIS ADDS TO OUR NATIONAL ENERGY SECURITY.
Another Musk cultist who doesn't critically understand the ridiculous design of "Starship."
it cant be that easy?…. can it?
But how is there so much carbon in the air to produce methane on a industrial scale???
extraordinary.
The double speed is annoying!
As far as I know KIT in Germany is already producing methane from solar…