Green Trucker post

This may be complex and need plenty of explanation.  Also, it is a thought experiment and a speculation alert is in order.

With that, I begin.

First of all, it has occurred to me that you could possibly make your own hydrogen for a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle conversion.  It would require a conventional gasoline powered vehicle to be converted to a hydrogen fuel cell set up.  First, the vehicle would have to be converted to a battery electric, then add the fuel cells for range extension.

Now, having done that, it would require the construction of the Sabatier reactors for the production of methane from waste carbon dioxide gas and water.  It would require the construction of the reactors and the solar dishes.  In addition to this, the devices would need a lot of unobstructed land with clear access to the the sun.  As far as the solar dishes are concerned, use the Fresnel lens set up that was demonstrated on Greenpowerscience youtube channel.  This will provide the power for the Sabatier reactors to convert the waste carbon dioxide to methane.

Leaving out the details of how to construct the Sabatier reactors, and since this is but a thought experiment at present, let's just see if the whole idea is economically feasible.

So, I constructed some spreadsheets which analyzes the costs of such a device.  It is then compared with current prices for methane, and a speculated nuclear produced methane price.

The results show that from an economic point of view, it makes little sense to make Fresnel lenses to make methane.  The market price of methane will be cheaper.  However, nuclear produced methane would be cheaper than the current market price of methane.  However, from a green point of view, a slight penalty for green methane might be considered "worth it".  It may not be considered "worth it" to use nuclear power, but in doing so, one incurs a massive penalty, as we shall see.

From my own point of view, I could be interested, as a trucker, to obtain methane that would allow me to get the cheapest price for fuel.  The cost of gasoline is way too high.  If an electric vehicle could be built, it could make sense to do a conversion to electric and run on a fuel cell.  You'd need a source of methane and a reformer and storage system for the hydrogen.  Not to mention, an affordable fuel cell.   Assuming I could get that accomplished, my options would be to make the green methane or just buy the methane and reform it myself from equipment that would have to be purchased.  Since I'm not the type to build such devices, a speculation alert was certainly necessary.

All of this would be a huge commitment, so that's why it is a thought experiment for now.  In spite of all, I could consider further thoughts on this and make a more small scale experiment if the spirit moves me.

Anyway, without any further adieu, here's the spreadsheets.  There are three.  One for the likely price for a solar dish arrangement, one for a breakeven price point for a solar dish arrangement, and one for a nuclear thermal arrangement at production cost.  The nuclear thermal is not something I would be doing myself of course. In that arrangement, only the cost to produce is considered.  For a entrepreneur to consider this, the costs here indicated that nuclear methane could be produced at a very competitive rate.  An opportunity beckons for the right kind of individual.

Likely price of solar dish electric is about 30 cent per kilowatt hour

Note the market price of 7.82 for methane.  Cell I12.  Dish electric price is 30 cents kwh.  Cell A16.  Cost to produce solar methane: cell H27.  Cost per mile to operate a Ford E150 van at 16 mpg with a fuel cell: Cell  K32.

Breakeven for solar dish electric is a bit lower than the likely price.  The set up would have to outperform the expected.  That's why it isn't likely.

Note the dish price falls to 23 cents per kwh.  The methane price falls to market.  The price per mile drops accordingly.  Note that I calculated the number of days to recover the cost of building a solar fresnel lens set up that Dan Rojas says costs in terms of materials.  Cost of labor not included.  It would take 132 days at 6 hours per day to make enough methane from one dish to pay for its own materials.  See cell C23.

Nuclear thermal blows them both away.  At 4 cent's per kwh, the cost to produce methane would be about 1/5 of the current market price.

Note at cell A12 that the cost of nuclear electric at 4 cents per kilowatt hour can be further reduced if electricity is not produced.  That drops the price to ridiculously low levels.  See cell B12.  At cell H25, see that the cost of methane is approximately 1/5 the cost of the current price for methane.  To operate a delivery van for 200 miles would require only $2.11 fuel.  Is it worth it?  Somebody ought to be doing this.

These costs are accounting for some inefficiencies.  The reaction efficiency rate is assumed to be 90%.  It may be higher or lower, I don't know.  The cost of producing and storing hydrogen is considered to be 1/2 of its production cost.   The cost per mile for fuel cells are considered to be twice that for gasoline powered vehicle of the same class.  It may be higher or lower.

An apology for the charts.  I tried to include as much self explanation as possible here.  The charts are quite busy.  There are a lot of details here.  For example, I calculated that it would take 24 dishes to produce the required solar methane.

Bottom line:  Too much of a commitment necessary for so many dishes.  Other considerations: safety of the dishes---they can be dangerous.  Weather is not considered.  Rainy days and storms make for complications.  Consider the thought experiment as an existence proof for solar methane, but hardly a strong endorsement for it.  Nuclear methane?  Hell yeah.