https://earther.gizmodo.com/a-dutch-brewery-is-burning-iron-powder-as-a-recyclable-1845585963 A Dutch brewery is using iron powder as fuel to demonstrate its potential utility as a carbon-free power source, New Atlas reported on Wednesday. Very small particles of iron burns well at high temperatures, releasing energy as they oxidize that can be used in industrial processes or power generation. Eindhoven University of Technology students first demonstrated the practicality of the iron combustion process in 2018 with a 20 kilowatt system (about the same level of power as a conventional central heating boiler) that generated electricity, hot water, and steam. Combusting the iron power only creates one direct byproduct—iron oxide (rust)—which can be converted back to iron with electricity, perhaps generated by renewable sources in a carbon-neutral cycle.
Idea for a carbon neutral fuel cycle: use renewables to generate power to turn CO2 and H20 back into gasoline.
And if someone can come up with a more efficient version of the Fischer-Tropsch process, that might happen.
That's basically what biofuels are, and for situations where we don't yet really know what viable alternatives to hydrocarbon fuel is (like long range airliners) it's probably something we'll have to ramp up.
