What Happens to Unused Electricity in Distribution Transformers?

[johnbbahm]

From what I can tell, Audi say about 70%,
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/energy/2015/04/150428-audi-ediesel-made-from-water-air/
"Audi says the efficiency of the overall process is “very high”—about 70 percent"
I think the best and the brightest petroleum engineers might be able to make additional improvements.
From what i have read, the process is very similar Olefin processing.

 

[anorlunda]

From what I can tell, Audi say about 70%,
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/energy/2015/04/150428-audi-ediesel-made-from-water-air/
"Audi says the efficiency of the overall process is “very high”—about 70 percent"
I think the best and the brightest petroleum engineers might be able to make additional improvements.
From what i have read, the process is very similar Olefin processing.

That is what they claim, but color me skeptical. If that was true then they have the solution to climate change. Just run that process with non carbon electricity and remove all excess CO2 from the atmosphere. I don't believe it.

 

[johnbbahm]

The Naval research labs are looking at the same process to make jet fuel for aircraft carriers.
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-releases/2012/fueling-the-fleet-navy-looks-to-the-seas
I think they hit a snag about the fuel was not flight certified.
Then they were saying 60%.
I think it would be a good way to store surplus alternative energy.

 

[sophiecentaur]

I think it would be a good way to store surplus alternative energy.

If it could be done on a small scale (shoebox size) then it could be an addition to the Hybrid Vehicle.
[Edit - actually that's a bit daft, isn't it? Except for regen braking. Change that to 'in the home' and it could make sense.]

 

[johnbbahm]

One of the first articles I saw on this, was from Germany,
they were thinking of an outdoor air conditioner size unit,
to convert summer surplus photovoltaic electricity to natural gas, for winter heating.
The gas would be stored in the
natural gas grid. The is not really a price performer at the current price of natural gas.
At roughly 55 Kwh per gallon of gasoline, I am thinking it is something that needs a bigger scale.