7 January 2008—At first blush, you might lump claims
about a machine that supposedly turns sunshine, air, and
water into fuel in the same category as e-mails
insisting that someone in Nigeria will pay you
handsomely to help free up a large sum of money. But
researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia
National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, say they have
created a device that can break water into hydrogen and
oxygen using sunlight, or in a another reaction convert
carbon dioxide, to carbon monoxide that
combines with hydrogen to make
hydrocarbons such as methanol, ethanol, and even
gasoline or diesel fuel. The technology holds the
promise of using the same resources as biomass-to-fuel
schemes but with potentially greater efficiency,
according to the researchers.