Interesting history

There was at one time, a political interest in synthetic fuels.  But the interest faded.  Perhaps it faded because it really wasn't economical.

It is possible to produce gasoline indirectly from nothing more than sea water and plenty of energy.  How?

The seawater would provide carbon dioxide and water.  These two compounds are the same ones that plant life uses to make hydrocarbons.  We don't think of them as hydrocarbons, because hydrocarbons are associated with crude oil.  We think of plant life as producing carbohydrates instead of hydrocarbons.  But for all intents and purposes, it is pretty much the same thing.  It is a question of semantics, not chemistry.

Anyway, as the article points out, the Germans made their own gasoline from coal.  It is relatively easy to make methanol from coal, even the ancients could do that.  A little more chemistry needs to be done to get from methanol to gasoline.   Modern days, there has been a development of a process that can now produce gasoline from natural gas.  It would seem an easy step then, to go from methanol to gasoline.

What's the connection with seawater?  I recall reading about a process that could produce methanol from seawater with the assist of energy from a nuke plant.  Nuke plants aren't necessarily cheaper  than coal, but if you use molten-salt reactors, your energy source would be cheaper than coal.  The production of methanol should be much cheaper than with conventional nuclear reactor energy.  I have a hunch that the gasoline produced in this way would be competitively priced with gasoline from fossil fuels.

If I am right, that could be a killer app for molten-salt reactors.